


Strangers On This Journey

by JonasGeek



Category: Glee
Genre: Inspired by a Movie, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-30
Updated: 2013-03-30
Packaged: 2017-12-06 23:01:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 23,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/741180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JonasGeek/pseuds/JonasGeek
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kurt doesn't remember who he is or where he comes from. He stumbles upon two brothers who take him on an adventure of a lifetime to help him on his journey to the past. (Anastasia AU)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strangers On This Journey

**Author's Note:**

> Some background on this story first. Firstly, yes it is based off the animated movie Anastasia. And no, you didn't have to have seen the movie before. I think I lay everything out so you don't have to worry about that.
> 
> Secondly, this story is fairly different from the movie, I found the original script and I liked the villain in that one better so I used more of those scenes. Also a few of the scenes differ slightly, but the message is still there. Most of the songs from the soundtrack are included as well, they all should be YouTube if you want to listen to them.
> 
> Lastly, enjoy. I worked hard on this and I did a lot of research as well. I even read about the true story of Anastasia, which was quite interesting to read.
> 
> So I hope you enjoy the story and on with the show! Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or Anastasia. Fox owns them both.

           Once upon a time people lived in an enchanted world at the Palace of St. McKinley.   And in that world of Kings and Princes and elegant palaces there would be grand parties.  But sadly while it was a beautiful, magical time, it would soon be gone forever.

            Currently in the Palace of St. McKinley, in the middle of the summer, there was a party being held.  The orchestra was playing in the main hall.  Everyone in the hall turned and looked up at King Burt who was standing next to his wife, Queen Elizabeth.  Their entire family was supposed to be standing on the top of the steps, but they were missing someone.

            An eight year old was running down another flight of stairs with his servant, Emma, holding his hand, “You are late Prince Kurtis and it’s all fault.”

            “I told you to call me just Kurtis,” the boy said, “And I’m not late, everyone else is early, besides no one will notice.”

            Emma let out a laugh, “Oh sire, you have a bit of dirt on your face.”  She grabbed a cloth from her pocket and stopped the young boy from running.  “Now don’t move,” she said wiping his face.

            “No, I’m fine,” Kurtis said backing up into the curtains and tripping on them causing him to fall down.  He was now in the audience of his mother and father, along with everyone else getting ready for the royal family’s appearance.

            Kurtis stood up and wiped his face quickly, along with his jacket and pants.  He walked over to stand next to his mother and father.

            King Burt looked down at his son and gave him a smile.  Kurtis gave him a smile back.  Kurtis held up his head as he walked with an abundance of energy and confidence for a boy his age.

            The music suddenly begins to get louder and a flourish of trumpets ring through out the grand ballroom.  The royal family enters the ballroom and all eyes are on them.  The elegant guests are staring up at them in awe.  They all love the royal family and admired them.  They knew with a certainty that the Hummels would rule over the land of Lima forever.

            Couples were dancing gracefully through out the entire ballroom.  Kurtis was dancing with his mother and smiling up at her.

            Off at the head of the room sat King Burt sitting next to his sister, Sophia.  Sophia is Burt’s older sister, but being a woman she wasn’t able to take the throne.  In the end she married once, but he died young, which led to never having children of her own.  She was quite close to Kurtis and he often wanted to go on holidays with her.

            Back down on the ballroom floor, underneath the long buffet table was a small servant boy, who was dressed in ragged servant clothes, with dark curly hair that was falling in front of his face.  His eyes were darting across the ballroom watching all of the guests.  He was envious of them.

            The boy spotted Kurtis dancing with his mother.  He looked away just as Kurtis looked over at him.

            The servants walk in carrying trays of beautiful tropical fruits which cause of the all guests so make pleasing noises eyeing the extravagant fruit.

            Kurtis watches as the young servant boy stare at the fruit with wide and hungry eyes.  He doesn’t miss a step as he grabs an orange off one of the trays and tosses it over to the boy.

            The boy catches the fruit and smiles broadly at him.  But then a sudden hand grabs his arm and pulls him out fro underneath the table.  The boy recognizes him as the head servant, Thomas.  He pulls him into an open wall panel.

            “You are a servant,” Thomas said taking the orange from the young boy’s hands, “Never forget your place.”

            The boy gives him a look, “Someday my place will be out there!”

            “Never,” Thomas shouts, “You’re a peasant Blaine!  Back in the kitchen with you!”

            In the ballroom, Kurtis takes a break from dancing with his mom and runs over to see his aunt.  He sits down next to his Aunt Sophia and smiles up at her. 

            “Why were you so late tonight?” Sophia asked him.

            Kurtis looked down at his feet, “I was showing Emma something,” he shrugged his shoulders.

            Sophia knew her nephew better than that, “What were you showing her?”

            “How to read,” Kurtis said with a sly grin.

            Sophia shook her head with a laugh, “I thought you were told not to tutor your servants anymore.”

            “I know,” Kurtis said and looked up at his aunt, “But I had to because…”  He knew from the look on his aunt’s face he didn’t have to explain why.  She just knew, she always knew.  “Oh, Aunt Sophia, why do you have to leave to go to Paris soon?”

            “Well it’s where I made my home,” Sophia explained, “But I may have a present for you.”

            Kurtis got excited as his aunt reaches from behind her chair and presents a beautiful music box.  The music box is small and circular.  It’s gold and has green accents.  She picks up a key.  It is a small golden key, on a gold neck chain and winds the small music box up.  She then hands the key to Kurtis, opening the music box as the music begins to play.

            “Oh, it’s the song you always sing to me,” Kurtis said excitedly.

            Sophia starts to sing and smiles at her nephew.

 

_On the wind across the sea_

_Here this song and remember_

            Kurt joins in with his aunt and sings softly.

 

_Soon you'll be home with me_

_Once upon a December_

 

Kurt holds the small music box close to his heart.  “Read what is says,” Sophia said to him.

Kurt picks up the small key and reads the small words, “Together in Paris, oh Aunt Sophia,” he threw his arms around her neck.  He pulled back and looked up slowly, “When will I be able to travel with you?”

            “When you are older,” Sophia told him.  Kurtis makes a disgruntled face and it makes his aunt laugh.  “Until then whenever you hear this song, think of me and know that I am thinking about you just as much as you are thinking about me.”

            Sophia takes the key and places it around Kurtis’s neck.  Kurtis throws his arms around his aunt’s neck.

            Suddenly the lights begin to fade in and out.  The people in the ballroom all look around bewildered.  Then a whirlwind starts in the center and sends everyone off of the dance floor.  The whirlwind becomes a tornado.

            A small albino bat, Chandler, with huge eyes springs out of the funnel, screeching and swooping over the crowd, causing everyone to duck and cover their heads in fear.

            The tornado reaches its peak and explodes in smoke.  Left standing alone in the middle of the room was the evil and sinister Sebastian.  His age is undetermined by his looks, but his presence keeps him towering over the other men in the room and he looks young yet worse for wear.  His striking features are his pointed face.  He is dressed in long black robes tied at the waist with a satin rope.  Hooked onto the rope is a mystical lantern, reliquary.

            The royal family is huddled together at the head table.  But a king never stands down.  Burt stands up and stares at the man, “Sebastian, how can you be alive?”

            Sebastian waves a hand in the air, “Despite being shot, poisoned, and thrown into an icy river…One would wonder.”

            Burt is shocked and shakes his head, “I had nothing to do with that.”  He answers honestly to him.

            “You gave the orders!” Sebastian shouts at him.

            “I did no such thing,” Burt yells at him.

            Flames started swirling around Sebastian, “After all I’ve done for your family.  You tried to kill me!”

            Sebastian grabs his reliquary from his satin rope, and swings it about with smoke coming out of it.  Eerie moaning noises come from the lantern and people are backing away in terror.

            “The Hummel dynasty ends here!  You, your wife, and child will all die within the fortnight,” Sebastian shouts into the room.

            Kurtis can’t take sitting still anymore, “NO!” he shouts out.  He pushes his aunt’s hands away and rushes in front of his father, “We are not afraid of you!”

            “You…my little Porcelain…you’ll be so much fun to kill that I’ll save you for last!” Sebastian roared at him.  He twirled his reliquary again and the moans grew louder.  Chandler circles around his head.  The smoke emerges and seems to have an almost human shape to it.

            “This is the end of the Hummel line forever!” Sebastian shouts and it causes the tornado of smoke to begin again.  And it starts whipping into a frenzy and then exploding.

            The smoke clears and Sebastian is gone.  The lights return to normal and the Hummel family all stand together.  The three of them try to look regal and in control again.

            They say that Sebastian harnessed all of the dark powers of evil and that it was his curse that brought about the end.  One thing the people knew for sure, was that all of the beauty of the world had would soon be gone…forever.

            During the night it seemed all was calm until a fire started in the main hall and started to spread.  It set the curtains on fire and people were curious what the noises where.

            A screaming mob started, some in uniform while others were not.  People were running through the halls and heard from far off were rifle shots.

            Kurtis bolted up from hearing the shots.  He glances on his nightstand and sees his music box still sitting there.  He can hear the sudden shots from outside his door.

            Kurtis gets out of bed and looks into the hallway.  Sophia is suddenly at his side and grabbing his hand.  They start running down the hall when Kurtis stops suddenly.

            “My music box!” Kurtis shouts and turns around to run back the hall towards his room.

            “Kurtis, no!” Sophia reaches out for him, but it’s too late since he is already running back down the hall fighting the crowd. Sophia has no choice but to follow her nephew.

            Kurtis runs into his room and grabs his music box from the nightstand.  Sophia runs inside of the room after him, “Hurry Kurtis!”

            Loud rifle shots are heard and the door bursts open with the small curly haired servant running in and slamming the door shut behind him.  Blaine looked up and saw the Duchess and Prince in the room.

            “We need to get out here,” Sophia said trying to go through the door.

            “No,” Blaine shook his head.  He ran over to the wall and pulled a panel open, “This way.”  He pointed to passageway, “Go!  Run!  Out the servant’s quarters!”

            Sophia looked gratefully at the young boy as he brushed the curls away from his face.

            “Go!” Blaine shouted at them.

            Sophia crawls inside of the passageway and Blaine pushes Kurtis inside after his aunt.  It causes Kurtis to lose the music box from his hands.  He reaches for it, but hearing the mob voices growing closer, Blaine pushes Kurtis through the panel without the object.  “Go!” he repeats to them through the closed door.

            Sophia takes Kurtis’s hand and they start to walk down the small, narrow, passage way.  Blaine throws his body over the panel just as the mob bursts into the room.

            “No one is in here!  Let’s try the next room!” Blaine shouts hoping they believe him.  The mob seems to accept his answer and rush out of the room.  Blaine picks up the music box and looks sadly towards the panel.

            At the train station, royalists are running around everywhere trying to board the overcrowded trains.  The revolutionaries are trying to stop them.  The train starts to pull away.

            Sophia and Kurtis run out onto the street and race for the train.  They were fighting their way through the frenzied and frightened crowd. 

“The Duchess!  Let her through!” someone shouts.  It helps clear the way.

Kurtis reaches the train first and then turns to see his aunt trying to catch up with the train.  “Hurry Aunt Sophia!”

“Get on, Kurtis!  Get on!” Sophia shouts.

Kurtis refuses to board the train without his aunt.  Up ahead there is a mob of revolutionaries who are blocking the train tracks with a truck.  Kurtis pushes his aunt up the stairs of the caboose.  Because of this, he finds himself a few steps behind as the train speeds up.

Sophia is gripped by the other passengers as she reaches out to Kurtis.  “Grab my hand!” she shouts.

Kurtis reaches out to take his aunt’s hand, “Don’t let go!” he yells back.  But then suddenly their hands are ripped apart and Kurtis stumbles to the ground.

“Kurtis!” Sophia yells out.

Kurtis falls to the ground hard and is left laying there.

Sophia can’t believe it, “KURTIS!” she shouts.  She rushes to jump off the train, but the other passengers hold her back.

The train crashes into the truck and picks up speed.  Kurtis lifts his head slowly and holds out his hand, but he is quickly swallowed up by the mob.

That is last time Sophia ever saw her nephew again.

 

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

 

            St. McKinley isn’t the town it used to be.  The streets are lined with people who don’t have anywhere to live and are frightened for their lives on a daily basis.  Once the Hummel’s were killed that night ten years ago, the monarch was overthrown and communists took over the small country of Lima.

One thing that has kept the town running is the rumor mill it has.

            An old woman holding up a shirt started to sing, “ _St. McKinley is gloomy_!”

            “ _St._ _McKinley is bleak,_ ” a younger woman said.

            An older man who works outside walked up behind them, “ _My underwear got frozen standing here all week_.”

            “ _Oh, since the revolution our lives have been so gray,_ ” they all sing together.

            Then the entire town joins in singing.

 

_Thank goodness for the gossip that gets us through the day!_

_Hey!_

_Have you heard?_

_There’s a rumor in St. McKinley?_

_Have you heard?_

_What they’re saying on the street?_

_Although the King did not survive,_

_One noble son may be alive._

_Our one and only prince Kurtis!_

A man hiding behind a cart ducks down and sings, “ _But please do not repeat._ ”

            The town then begins to sing once again.

 

_It’s a rumor,_

_A legend,_

_A mystery!_

_Something whispered in an alleyway_

_Or through a crack!_

_It’s a rumor_

_That’s part of our history._

An older woman walked up behind a young couple, “ _They say his royal auntie will pay a royal sum_.”

The town nodded their heads, “ _To someone who can bring the prince back_!”

            A man trying to make a sale holds out his hand showing a painting, “ _A ruble for this painting!  It’s Hummel, I swear_.”

            “ _Count Yusopov’s pajamas!  Comrade buy the pair_ ,” Another man said holding up a pair of large pants.

            There was another man holding up some fur, “ _I got this from the palace.  It’s lined with real +fur!_ ”

            The three joined together, “ _It could be worth a fortune if it belonged to him!_ ”

            Blaine appeared walking out a door placing a newsboy cap on his head.  He is now twenty and still has the same striking features since he had when he was a child.  His hair is still curly and falling down in front of his face.  He smiled and began singing.

 

_It’s the rumor,_

_The legend,_

_The mystery!_

_It’s the Prince Kurtis who will help us fly!_

            He appeared along side his older brother Cooper.  Cooper had tamed dark hair on his head and had handsome looks, many often questioned if he was royalty.  He was about ten years older than Blaine, and took care of his younger brother after the revolutionaries took over the palace killing both of their parents.

            Blaine opened another door and his brother followed him out.

_You and I friend_

_Will go down in history!_

_We’ll find a boy to play the part and teach him what to say,_

_Dress him up and take him to Paree!_

_Imagine the reward his dear old Auntie will pay!_

_Who else could pull it off but you and me?_

_We’ll be rich!_

            Cooper smiled and put an arm around Blaine’s shoulders, “ _We’ll be rich!_ ”

            “ _We’ll be out!_ ” Blaine said punching the air.

            Cooper held out his hand to let Blaine walk pass him, “ _We’ll be out!_ ”

            They both started walking together, “ _And St. McKinley will have some more to talk about!_ ”

            The town once again joined together to sing.

 

_Shh!_

_Have you heard_

_There’s a rumor in St McKinley?_

_Have you heard_

_What they’re saying on the street?_

_Hey!_

_Hey!_

_Hey!_

_Have you heard_

_There’s a rumor in St. McKinley!_

_Have you heard!_

An excited old woman smiled, “ _Comrade what do you suppose?_ ”

            “ _A fascinating mystery,_ ” the town answered back with song.

            Blaine jumped on the back of a bus, “ _The biggest con in history!_ ”  Cooper joined him.

            The town then sang together again, “ _The Prince Kurtis, alive or dead?_ ”

            “ _Who knows?_ ” an old man pushing a cart with old pots and pans shrugs answering for all.

 

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

 

            Kurt, who is now eighteen, is busy scrubbing the floor of the orphanage.  Despite being in hand-me-down clothes that are two sizes to big, which he is forced to wear, he keeps busy with his tasks.  He hums a tune not to let his surroundings get to him.

            The door slams open and a young boy, Kevin who is only eight years old, comes running in with a look of terror on his face.  He is followed by Sue Sylvester, a tall horrifying woman carrying a paddle.

            “Kurt!  Kurt!” the boy runs over to the opposite side of the room trying to hide in a corner.

            All of the other children in the room turn away, not wanting to get involved.  Kurt then focuses on Kevin, who is shivering with fright and on the verge of tears as Sue approaches swinging her paddle menacingly.

            “You can’t get away from now,” Sue said with an evil grin.  She raises her hand with the paddle in hand.

            Kurt is faster as he grabs the scrub brush he was using and shoves it across the floor, right under Sue’s unsuspecting foot.  Sue’s feet fly out from underneath her and she smashes onto the floor.

            Kevin jumps over Sue’s body and runs to Kurt for safety.  Some of the other children glance over.  A boy with a bowl cut and a boy with his hair freshly buzzed off, look at Kurt with admiration.  While some of the other children think he is crazy for defying their caretaker.

            Sue stands with soap bubbles covering her.  She spins and points directly at Kurt who is giving her an innocent smile, “You!  You did this!”

            Some of the children begin to laugh as the soap bubbles fly off the woman.  She spins with her back now to Kurt.

            “Brats!  There’ll be no supper for any of you!  Now back to work!” Sue shouts at them.

            Kurt stands up behind Sue, and begins to mimic her outraged face and angry gestures perfectly which causes the children to laugh harder.

            Sue turns around and almost catches Kurt.  She advances towards him as Kevin who is hiding between Kurt’s legs hides his face.

            “Don’t touch him,” Kurt says to her.

            “You ragged, skinny, little brat,” Sue shouts, “I have had just about enough of you.”  Sue raises a hand to slap Kurt, who holds his ground.  But then she sniffs the air and the kids start to smell the horrible smell as well.  They all make faces and hold their noses.

            Sue quickly realizes what that smell is, “Oh Comrade Schuester.  What a lovely surprise.  What brings you here?”  She is keeping up her act because if she doesn’t she will lose the orphanage.

            “I need…a worker,” Will Schuester said.  He catches Kurt’s eye and looks him up and down.  His eyes showing a sense of concern for him, “I will take him.”

            Schuster walks over to Kurt and leans in close, “Tomorrow you begin your life’s work in my herring factory.  You’ll start by cutting off the tails and I’m pleased,” he reached down and took a piece of invisible lint off his jacket, “You may just move up to cutting off head.  How does that sound?”

            Sue moves in between them, “No no, Comrade you don’t want him.”

            “I want him,” Schuester said sure of himself.

            “That horrible skinny thing?” Sue shook her head, “He is crazy.  He has no memory of anything before he came here.  He didn’t even know his name.  He just found that name written on the jacket someone was wearing.  That one is a rotten troublemaker, willful…”

            “I will break him,” Schuester said, “I shall come for you tomorrow at dawn.”  He reaches up to stroke Kurt’s face.

            Kurt pulls away.

            “You’ll enjoy serving under me,” Schuester said smiling with anticipation.  With that last word he leaves the building and walking down the road.

            Sue then turns towards Kurt, “I couldn’t break you, but I bet he can!”  She leaves in a huff.

            Kurt does one more imitation of her making the children laugh.  But as Kurt turns away from his audience, his face falls and realizes the terror his future holds.

            Later that night all of the children are huddled in their cots, which are lined up in three rows, under tattered thin blankets.  Kurt, who is fully dressed, starts to tie the grey dull bed sheets together and anchors the rope to an ice cold radiator.  The radiator hasn’t worked since he came here, he doubt it ever would.  He throws the other end out the window.

            Kurt is about to climb out the window, when he looks at the sleeping children and smiles sadly.  He walks over to Kevin’s bed and takes the hand of the sleeping boy who opens his eyes and smiles.

            “Kurt?” the young boy asked waking up.  All of the other children soon awake and Kurt quickly shushes him.  “Are you running away?”

            “No,” Kurt shook his head, “I’m running to.”

            A boy scrunches his face in confusion, “Running to?  Running to what?”

            “To find my home,” Kurt stands proudly.

            The little boy with a bowl cut looks up at Kurt, “But you are home.”

            “No.  This isn’t my home,” Kurt shook his head, “This is just a building.  Home is where you belong and none of us belong here.”

            “Where is your home, Kurt?” Kevin asked him.

            Kurt pulls at the chain around his neck and a key slips out from underneath his clothes.  He holds it to show him, “It says, Together in Paris.  I was wearing this when I came here ten years ago, it’s the only way that I know,” he pauses, “That I know someone loved me.”

            “Is your home Paris?” a boy asked.

            “It might be,” Kurt shrugged, “I have to go and find out.”

            Kurt smiles lovingly at the children.  They beg Kurt to sing them one more song.  And Kurt does, he sings softly to the children about how all he has is this key around his neck that someone gave him that was lost long ago.  He tells the children that he must leave and he will find them again.

            “I have to go now, before it gets light,” Kurt tells them.

            Kevin looks up at him sadly, “But what if we can’t ever find where we came from?”

            Kurt smiles at him, “Then you’ll have to make your own home.  Lots of people do.”  He embraces the kids and walks to the window.

            “Kurt, what if we can’t find anyone who loves us?” Kevin asked now.

            Kurt gave him a smile, “Then come find me.”  He grabs his rope and starts to scale down the window.  He wasn’t expecting the old sheets to start ripping, but they were and he landed on the ground into a snow bank.

            “I hope there’s no snow in Paris,” Kurt said to himself as he brushed off the snow.

            Kurt walked along the streets until the sun was starting to come up.  He shivered as he walked and then thought of the first thing he loved to do.  And that was to sing.

 

_Heart don't fail me now_

_Courage don't desert me_

_Don't turn back now that we're here._

_People's always say life is full of choices_

_No one ever mentions fear._

_Or how the world can seem so vast_

_On the journey to the past._

           

He sang as he walked and saw the town of St. McKinley below.  He picked up his pace and smiled thinking about the future.

 

_Somewhere down this road_

_I know someone's waiting_

_Years of dreams just can't be wrong._

_Arms will open wide_

_I'll be safe and wanted_

_Finally home where I belong_

_Well starry now I'm learning fast_

_On this journey to the past._

Stopping, he leaned on a fence singing to anyone who would listen to him.

_Home, love, family_

_There was once a time I must have had them too._

_Home, love, family_

_I will never be complete until I find you._

Walking along the path, Kurt found himself smiling.  He kicked at the snow underneath his feet.

_One step at a time_

_One hope than another_

_Who knows where this road may go_

_Back to who I was_

_On to find my future_

_Things my heart still needs to know._

_Yes, let this be your sign_

_Let this road be mine_

_Let it lead me to my past_

_And bring me home at last._

            Kurt finally took his first steps into the town and was amazed by all of it.  He thinks there may be someone in this town who knows who he is, someone who loved him once.

            Kurt spots a small grey kitten out of the corner of his eye.  The kitten had something in his mouth and it took off running.  “Hey wait,” he called out chasing after the kitten.

            The kitten ran down an alleyway and Kurt chased him.  He looked around and couldn’t find where the kitten went.  He crouched down and spotted the kitten now surrounded by three dogs who want the fish hanging out of the kitten’s mouth.

            Kurt stood up and ran over, “Get away,” he shooed the dogs.  “Get out of here,” he waved a hand at them. 

The dogs walked away giving the kitten a look as they passed.

Kurt leaned down and reached his hand out slowly, “I think you should be a bit more careful about whom you invite to dinner.”

The kitten gives him a small nod, Kurt swore he could anyways.

Kurt then looked up and spotted a large building with people surrounding it.  He started to walk towards it, not knowing the kitten was following close behind him.  On top of the building was large letters reading, ‘The People’s Bureau of Bureaucracy.’  It seemed like an important place, so he walked inside.

The kitten was stopped when the door shut before he could walk inside to follow Kurt.

Stopping as he walked inside, Kurt saw that the lines of people went on and on.  There seemed to be at least twenty of them.  He walked down the side of one line trying to figure out where he should stand.  “Um, I was wondering could someone tell me…”

“End of the line!” one of the people grunted at him.

Kurt looked over at him, “Which line?”  Thankful someone was talking to him.

A woman in front of him pointed, “Any line.”

“All lines are good lines,” a younger looking man said to him.

“In our beloved Lima,” they all chanted together.  And then they all turned toward the armed guard at the door and smiled at him hoping he heard their flattery.

The guard nodded his head towards them, “Very good,” as he wrote something down in his notebook.

Kurt thought that was funny, but started walking looking for an end of anyone of the lines.  He spotted what he thought was the end of one line and stood in it, “Is this the correct line to get papers to travel?” he asked a woman in front of him.

“Travel?  Travel to where?” the woman said to him.

Kurt smiled at her, “To Paris.  I have to get to Paris.”

A man who is in front of the woman turned around, “Paris!  Why do they have in Paris that they don’t have here?”

“Shorter lines,” another man said in a teasing manner.

Suddenly two armed guards appeared and grabbed the man.  He was pulled out of the building and thrown onto the streets.

A young woman with a baby on her hip lowered her voice, “Nobody ever leaves Lima.”

Many of the other people nod their heads in agreement.

Kurt couldn’t believe them.  He had a family to find and he knew Paris had to be the right place to go.  He waited until he was called to the front of the line.

“Hello, is this where I get traveling papers?” Kurt asked the clerk.

The clerk’s eyes widened, “It would be if we let you travel which we don’t so it isn’t,” he let his voice get louder, “Lima is the people’s paradise.”

To further make his point, the clerk slams the window shut on Kurt’s face.  He then opens it a crack to whisper, “See Blaine.  He can help.”  The window is shut again and Kurt heard, “But you didn’t here it from me,” from behind the window.

Kurt looks at the window confused, “I didn’t.”

The clerk opens the window, “No.”  He then tosses a break sign out and slams the window shut one last time.

Kurt is confused and doesn’t know exactly what to do now.  He eyes the guards from earlier.  He doesn’t want any trouble, so he leaves to head out back onto the streets.  “Cooper?  There must be a hundred Coopers,” he thought to himself.

The kitten is following Kurt once again.  Kurt then smells something, he instantly recognizes the smell, turning he spots Schuester standing by a cart.  He ducks down and notices the kitten.  “Shoo,” he tries to bat the kitten away.

Kurt stands slowly and peeks over a cart, he let out his breath as Schuester was walking the opposite way down the street.  He looks over seeing two people waiting to be let into a café, so he walks over.

“Which line is this?” the woman shouted.

The man groaned, “The line to get into the line.”

Kurt cleared his throat causing the two to look at him, “Excuse me, do you know Cooper?”

“I know nothing,” the man shouts.

The woman shook her head, “Nothing.”

Then the couple pulls him close and whisper, “Try the tavern/library.”  They say at the same time.  The couple starts to bicker back and forth between whether or not Blaine is at the tavern or the library.

Kurt sighs and turns around starting to walk away.

The couple shouts, “But we didn’t tell you!”

Kurt rolls his eyes, “I wish they’d all stop telling me they didn’t tell me.”  He felt something pawing at his feet and saw the kitten.  “What are you doing?”

The kitten then let out a purr and rubbed his head against Kurt’s leg.

“Fine,” Kurt smiled, “How about I name you Alexander?  You like that?”

Kurt then stood up straight and almost walked straight into a street artist who was painting a man and woman he assumed were husband and wife.

The man who was being painted snickered, “Could you get rid of her moustache?”

Kurt didn’t listen to him, he just talked to the artist, “Excuse me, I’m looking for a man named Cooper?  Have you heard—”

The artist quickly scribbled down something and hands it to Kurt without saying a word.  The artist looks ahead as he continues with his painting, “But I didn’t write it.”

            Kurt holds the small piece of paper in his hands.  It is an address.  St McKinleyArtTheatre – 99 Cheerio Street.  He holds the piece of paper to his chest and starts walking down the road once again.

            Meanwhile, at the St. McKinley Theatre there is an audition being held.  There is a waiting room full of young men, of various shapes and sizes, reading aloud from a piece of paper.

            On the stage an actor stands in front of what looks like to be an older woman in a shawl who’s back is turned away from the audience.

            The young man steps up and is over the top with his performance, “Oh Auntie!  It’s me, Kurtis!  I’ve waited so long to see you!”  He then lumbers over to the old woman and tries to hug her.

            The old woman stands up and turns to the audience, taking off the shawl and wig it is revealed to be a man, “Blaine!  I can not work with him!”  He then turns towards the actor, “May I remind you that you are suppose to be a prince!  Not a lumbering lazy idiot!”

            Sitting in the audience was Blaine.  He stands up, “Cooper calm down.”

            Cooper walks off the stage, “This, my brother, as an exercise is pointless!  We will never find a guy to play the Prince Kurtis out of this motley crew of commoners.”  He dramatically throws the shawl over his shoulder.

            Cooper walks and takes one of the seats in the audience by Blaine.  While Blaine sits back down, “Next up!”

            A man on stage walks on, very short and slightly chubby, “Oh Auntie!  It’s me, Kurtis!  I’ve waited so long to see you.”

            Blaine shook his head, “Next!”

            “Oh…” the man stumbled over his words nervously, “Auntie!  It’s me…Kurtis.  I have waited so long too!”

            Blaine’s head fell into his hands.  Cooper lets out a laugh and shouts, “Next!”

            A man walked on the stage dressed questionably and had a fan in his hands, “Oh…Auntie,” he started to talk sensually, “It’s me.”

            “Next!” Blaine shouted before he could on.  “I wouldn’t have to go through all this trouble if I could just find the right boy.”  Cooper nods his head in agreement.

            A rounder looking man took the stage, “Oh Auntie…”

            “Next,” Blaine said flipping the papers in his hands.

            “What’s my motivation?” a man asked with an intense look on his face.

            “Longing, desire, love!” Cooper shouted teasingly from his seat.

            Blaine gave his brother a look and shook his head, “Next!”

            A man walked on stage, but then Blaine realized quickly that he was a woman, “Oh…”

            “We have to find the right guy,” Blaine said to himself and then looked up, “Next!”

            Back outside on the streets Kurt is walking along the road and found the theatre right away.  He rushes inside quickly with Alexander on his heels.

            Blaine and Cooper were now arguing inside of the theatre after they had let all of the men leave.  “It’s no use Blaine, we will never find the right guy.”

            “We will,” Blaine said, “We have to.  Come on Cooper, he’s out there.”  The pair walks out the door.

            “He could be right under our nose,” Cooper pointed out.

            Kurt is running up the stairs while Blaine is walking down and they collide.  Blaine’s nose hits Kurt’s forehead.  Blaine reached up to rub his nose, “Ouch.  That really hurt.”

            Kurt holds out a hand, “I’m sorry.  I’m…”

            “That’s quite a hard head you’ve got there, boy,” Blaine said to him.

            Kurt looked down at his clothes, he wasn’t the best dressed young man, but still they were warm.  And he surely wasn’t a boy.  He was a man.  He shook his head clearing the thoughts and getting back to his task.  “I’m looking for Cooper.  I need traveling papers to Paris.  I heard Cooper can help.”

            Blaine and Cooper share a look.  Cooper waves his hand at Blaine signaling he would take care of it of the situation.  Blaine starts walking down the streets.  Cooper walks over to Kurt and throws an arm around his shoulders, “Who did you hear it from?”  He pulls him down the road.

            Kurt shrugs off his arm, “I heard it from everyone who said I didn’t hear it from them.  Do you know Cooper?”

            Blaine is still walking ahead of the pair listening to the conversation.

            “Providing travel papers is illegal,” Cooper shouts.  He then lowers his voice, “I know Cooper quite well.  Perhaps I can help you, provided you have enough money to pay for this service.”

            Kurt shakes his head, “Well I don’t have any money.”

            Cooper walks ahead of him, “Good day.”

            “Wait, no!” Kurt calls out, but Cooper just continues to walk on.

            Kurt turns around and starts to walk back the way he came.  He is back at the theatre and sees the kitten waiting for him.  Alexander meows long and hard at him.

            “What are you still doing here?” Kurt asked shoving his hands in his pockets.  “I have to go.”  He starts to walk away, but Alexander follows and meows again.  “No.  You can’t come with me.  I’m leaving.”

            The kitten meowed again making sure Kurt knew he was down there.

            Kurt leaned down, “It sounds like you’re saying ‘me too.’  Listen little guy, I have no money, no food, and no transportation.  I’m the last person you should be following.”  He pets the kitten on the head and set him back down on the ground.  “And I can’t give up yet,” he says with determination.  He decides to start walking back in the direction where he followed the men.  He doesn’t notice Alexander following close behind.

            Spotting the two of them turning the corner off in the distance, Kurt runs trying to keep up with them.  He turns the corner and then stops.  In the distance he can see a palace.  It’s now run down, boarded up and partially burned.

            Kurt is taken back.  He stares fascinated by it, almost moved by it.  As the sun begins to set, he can see it now bathed in a beautiful golden light.

            Inside the castle sits Cooper who is sitting in front of an open fire carefully rotating a spit, which holds a head of cabbage.

            Blaine is sitting by the window, staring at the music box in his hands that he had seen Prince Kurtis drop the night of the revolution.

            “Even if we find him, what makes you think the Queen will even see us?” Blaine asked his brother.

            Cooper points to what Blaine is holding in his hands, “She’ll see us.”

            Outside of the palace Kurt approaches one of the doors and pulls.  It doesn’t budge from its position.  He sees a boarded up window and looks through the crack.  He can see it is dark and eerie inside.  Once in all its former glory is now destroyed.

            Kurt finds a stick and starts using it to pry off some of the boards off the window.  One of them makes a loud cracking noise.

            The noise makes Blaine sit up quickly, “What was that?”

            As the crack sounded again, the cabbage fell into the fire, Cooper let out a groan, “That was your dinner!  I do hope there is no cabbage in Paris.”

            Kurt is now climbing inside the window and pulls Alexander in after him.  He looks around and is amazed by all he sees.  Wandering over, Kurt picks up half a broken plate from the floor and inspects it.  He instantly touches it and pulls his hand away as if he was shocked.  Setting the plate down, he looks towards a door.

            Kurt starts to walk out of the room and to the top of a huge staircase which leads to the grand ballroom.  He stops at a large landing half way down the steps. 

Alexander sees a large curtain handing precariously on the side wall.  Being a kitten he couldn’t resist pouncing and grabbing it with his claws.

Kurt didn’t notice and ran his hand along a worn banister that had carved butterflies on the side.  He then jumps startled, as Alexander pulls the curtain and it hits the floor.

Kurt is relieved to see it is only Alexander.  The kitten stands up and walks over to rub his head on Kurt’s leg happily.

“What are you do…” Kurt stops mid sentence, he is taken back by what he sees.

Behind the curtain was a large painting of the Hummel family.  The moonlight was currently hitting the portrait with a ghostly glow.  Kurt seems hypnotized by the painting and when he turns around he feels something inside of him.

 

_Dancing bears, painted wings_

_Things I almost remember_

_And a song someone sings_

_Once upon a December_

As he sings the ballroom transforms into its once splendid glory.  Kurt takes off his coat and his rags are transformed into a handsome outfit.  The man steps down from out of the painting and walks him down the stairs.  A woman takes his hand and he begins to waltz with her.

 

_Someone holds me safe and warm_

_Horses prance_

_Through a silver storm_

_Figures dancing gracefully_

_Across my memory_

As the music builds in Kurt’s mind, a chorus of voices sing the melody as royal ghosts appear as elegant and beautiful as Kurt could only imagine.

 

_Someone hold me safe and warm_

_Horses prance_

_Through a silver storm_

_Figures dancing gracefully_

_Across my memory._

Blaine and Cooper walk in on the scene and stop at the top of the stairs.  They watch as the crazy person on the dance floor dances with himself.

 

_Far away, long ago_

_Glowing dim as an ember_

_Things my heart used to know_

_Things it yearns to remember_

Kurt is suddenly in the woman’s arms from the painting and he is holding tight.  The woman kisses him on the forehead and backs away slowly.  He follows the woman back up the stairs to the landing where the sun is now shining through.

 

_And a song someone sings_

_Once upon a December._

 

            Blaine can’t take it anymore, “Who are you?” he yelled.

            Kurt turns around quickly, surprised and frightened.  His daydream is now completely gone.  He is caught in a ray of light, directly in front of the painting.  He is next to the image of Kurtis.  The resemblance is striking.  Blaine seems to be taken back, while Cooper is unaffected.

            “You’re trespassing kid,” Cooper said to him.

            Kurt is dazed by what just happened to him and can’t quite refocus on reality.  “I…I…spoke to you earlier about traveling papers.”

            Blaine pokes Cooper with his elbow but doesn’t take his eyes off Kurt, “It’s him.”

            “He’s him?” Cooper asked.

            “Look,” Blaine said pointing.

            Cooper stares and squints his eyes, “Ooh.”

            Kurt doesn’t know what to do, “Are you Cooper?  I didn’t mean to trespass.  I don’t want to do anything dishonest, but if you could help me…”

            Cooper and Blaine walk up the stairs and start to circle around him.  “Perhaps you heard of our brilliant plan to find a boy and…”

            Blaine pokes him hard in the ribs and shakes his head, “He doesn’t want to do anything ‘dishonest.’”

            Cooper gets it and whispers, “Ew…the honest type.”

            Blaine gives Cooper a ‘let me handle this’ gesture as he turns back to Kurt.  “You look like him.  Like the Prince Kurtis.  Has anyone ever told you that before?”

            Kurt comes back to his sense and realized he doesn’t like the men circling him, “Oh yeah.  In the orphanage they constantly told me I looked like a prince,” he said sarcastically.  He watches Blaine circle him, “And would you stop that!  What were you a vulture in another life or something?”

            Blaine stops circling and then begins to use everything that Kurt says to get what he wants.  “People say Kurtis was the only member of the royal family to escape alive.  That makes him an orphan too.”  He looks over at Kurt, “What happened to your parents?”

            Kurt shrugs, “I don’t know.  I don’t remember anything that happened before the revolution.”

            “You know, it’s strange,” Blaine tapped his chin, “Kurtis’ aunt, the grand Duchess Sophia, has been looking for Kurtis since the revolution.  Why do you think he wouldn’t go to his own family?”

            “I don’t know,” Kurt said, “I don’t see what this has to do with me.”

            Blaine smiles, “Perhaps it’s because he has amnesia too, can’t remember.”

            Cooper stares at Kurt, “How much do you weigh?”  Blaine pokes him again.  “I was just wondering since we already have an outfit.”

            Kurt groaned, “Look, I came here to get papers to travel to Paris and…”

            “Why do you want to go to Paris?” Blaine asked him quizzically.

            “I have my reasons,” Kurt crossed his arms over his chest.

            “Kurtis’ aunt is in Paris.  We’re going to bring Kurtis to her in Paris,’ Blaine explained, “And I think you are the Prince Kurtis.”

            Kurt stares at Blaine with wide eyes before he begins laughing.  He laughs so hard he has to hold his side.

            Cooper mouths to Blaine, ‘do you think he’s really Kurtis?’  Blaine shakes his head no, of course not, and then continues with Kurt.  Cooper smiles to himself and walks down the stairs.  Blaine is so good even he got confused, which happened more often than he would like.

            “You never thought of the possibility?” Blaine asked Kurt.

            Kurt gave him a look, “Look there isn’t an orphan in the world who hasn’t dreamed they are a prince or princess but, come on, look at me!”

            Cooper walked over to help his brother.  He took Kurt’s hand and spun him around in a circle.  And he dramatically started to point to the image of Prince Kurtis, “No, look at him!  Look at him!”  He took Kurt’s hand and let it run across the painting, “It could be you.”

            Kurt let his hand fall and reached up to fiddle with the key around his neck.  He turns to look down at the ballroom and remembers what happened just moments ago.  Could have been a memory what just happened?

            Blaine shoved his hands into his pockets and started to walk down the stairs, “You don’t have anything to lose,” he said to Kurt, “If I am wrong, the Duchess will simply tell us you aren’t Kurtis and we’ll be on our way.  No harm done, but at least you will be in Paris.”

            Kurt lifts his hand again and touches Kurtis’ painted hand on the painting.  “ _Things my heart used to know, things it yearns to remember_ ,” he sings quietly to himself.

            Blaine watches Kurt with his back toward him and he raises an arm in Kurt’s direction, “Find out the truth, come to Paris with us.”

            Kurt thinks, he honestly doesn’t know what to do.  The opportunity to go to Paris is everything he ever wanted, but what if no one is there for him.  What if no one is there waiting for him?  Then again his family could be there waiting for him with open arms.  A home, something he has wanted all along.  He spins around, “All right.  I will go with you.” 

Alexander lets out a low meow as if in agreement.

Cooper shouts and punches into the air, while Blaine smiles and bows to Kurt.  “His Royal Highness Prince Kurtis,” Cooper says playfully, “I am Cooper Anderson, while this is my younger brother, Blaine.”

Kurt smiled at the pair, “I’m Kurt, it is nice to meet you.”

Something the three new friends did not see was the small white bat, Chandler, hanging upside down listening to the entire conversation, “Oy.  He’s going to be so mad.”  He spreads his wings and flies out the window.

Chandler flies through the night and the city lights begin to fade.  There is a sudden darkness in the forest.  In the distance there is an orange glow and as Chandler gets closer he sees it’s a fire.

Chandler wiggles his feet trying to find his courage and swoops inside of a black wagon, the largest and most elaborate.  A lone candle lights up the dark wagon.  A frightened Chandler stays on the window sill.  “Umm, Lady Beiste?  It’s uhh, me.  Chandler.”  He let out a sigh of relief when no one answered, “Phew, not home.”

Suddenly Sebastian’s face suddenly appears from the bed below, his eyes are fiery red and has scruff on his face, “What?”

“Oh my god!” Chandler falls off the table he is standing on, “Don’t do that.  Feel my heart,” he brings a wing to his chest, “Go ahead.  I’m dying here.”

Sebastian waves a hand, “And what do you want, my little rat with wings?”  He stands up and tests to see if any of the bottles have any alcohol in them.  Finally he finds one and takes a drink.

“Name calling, that’s mature,” Chandler said to him.

Sebastian reaches over and grabs him by the throat, “I gave you that tongue and I can rip it out!”

Chandler wiggles around, “No, I really like my tongue, we’re really attached.”  Sebastian lets him go.  “Oy.  Okay now, promise you won’t get angry.”

Sebastian smiles over at him, “Why would I ever be angry with you, my little friend?”

“Yeah right,” Chandler said as he waved a wing, “Keep that thought okay?  I’m in town, stop by the old palace.  You get a better class of bats there.  No tattoos or anything.”

Sebastian’s bottle is empty to soon and starts looking for another tossing the empty ones over his shoulder.

“So I’m cruising’ the rafters and what can I say, I struck out.  I thought the boys would like the fact that I can talk, you know but, I mean, the way things are going I couldn’t be invited to a plague.”  A flying bottle smashes against a wall, “Someone’s got to clean that up.”

Sebastian satisfied that he finally found a full bottle.  He takes a drink, “Get to the point sometime tonight.  I’m late for a bucking.”

“Okay,” Chandler said, “You’re not going to like this but, well it looks like Kurtis is…still alive.”  He tenses and waits for an explosion from Sebastian.

Sebastian starts laughing, “Impossible.  That rumor has been around for years.”

Chandler flies up into Sebastian’s face, “Trust me, it’s him!”

“How do you know?” Sebastian asked him with his eyes narrowing.

“Rodent’s intuition, how do I know?  He looks exactly like him, except he’s taller,” Chandler said thinking out loud, “Which is natural.  Of course my second cousin, he never grew.  Looks like a little pepper shaker.  He was so cute.”  He hears Sebastian start to growl.  “Oh boy, I knew this was going to upset you.”

Sebastian howls in anger and smashes the bottle he is holding against the wall.  He moves towards the cabinet and knocks it over the furniture.  The reliquary begins to glow gently as if it was sleeping.

Chandler covers his eyes in fear.  Even Sebastian seems a bit nervous in front of it.

“Source of my power,” Sebastian walks closer to the lantern, “Owner of my soul.  I need your help.”  He picks up the reliquary and sets it on the table.

“Hey, he’s just a kid,” Chandler said quickly, “And he’s going to Paris out of sight.  Out of mind.  Out of Lima.”

“I cursed them all!” Sebastian shouts.

“My Aunt Bella, sweet woman not the brightest bat in the world, she used to hang right side up.  Anyways she always said ‘curses were made to be broken.’  Course, she said it in those irritating little bat squeaks, so it wasn’t so profound,” Chandler rambled on with his story.

Sebastian grabs a doll from the ground and it has an eerie resemblance to a young Kurtis.  He squeezes the doll in hands.  “The Hummel’s tried to kill me and I swore to destroy all of them!  If he lives, if he should have a child someday, the Hummel family continues!  And I won’t let that happen!” he shouts out loud.

“You know,” Chandler said landing on the table, “This is really an obsessive behavior.  There is this doctor in Austria, Sigmund something and he feels…” he waved a wing and it knocked over the reliquary down and started to roll.

“You idiot!” Sebastian yells as he makes a leap, grabbing it seconds before it hits the ground.  He holds it up and the smokey spirits inside start to swirl around and moan.  “Yes, you’d all like to get out, wouldn’t you?  Sorry just one at a time and only when I call.”

Chandler is trying to slip away, but Sebastian spies him and grabs a glass.  He slams it on top of the bat to keep him from escaping.

“Do you have any idea what would happen if that broke?” Sebastian asked him.

Chandler’s muffled voice answered, “You’d lose your security deposit?”

Sebastian ignores him and goes back to his task.  “Evil, powerful beings!  I have their power only if I contain them, control them.  If they should all be released at once, well…” he smiles a horrible smile and lifts the glass as if to whisper in Chandler’s ear, “You don’t want to be around if that happens!”

The volume of Sebastian’s voice rattles Chandler around the inside of the glass.

Sebastian lifts the reliquary, “Where is he?  Where is the Prince Kurtis?”

Inside of the lantern it awakes with a sudden growl.  And the smoke explodes inside and then a picture comes to view.  The picture shows a train with Kurt, Blaine, and Cooper running after to jump on.

“He has friends.  No matter,” Sebastian said.

Chandler wants to get out from underneath the glass.  He tries to topple the glass over, but jumping up he just hits his head, “Ohh, that was dumb.”  He turns to Sebastian, “Hello, I’ve got really terrible claustrophobia.  That’s why I could never live in a cave.”

But Sebastian is giving all of his attention to the reliquary, “Finish my prophecy.”  The smoke begins to pour out of the reliquary.  Almost giddy with thought of finishing his ambition, Sebastian starts laughing.

“Ew,” Chandler said sitting down, “I hate when he does this.”

As Sebastian swirls his arms the smoke begins to form into minions.  All look human at first, but then we see one of the minions with the body of a human and the head of a jackal.  Another minion changes to have a face of the woman and has the claws of a tiger.  The last minion is the most horrible of all, with a body of a bear and the head of a vulture.  All of them are wearing long capes with hoods.

“He is not to get off the train alive!” Sebastian shouts to them.  He kicks open the wagon door and leaps outside.  The minions follow him out of the wagon.  One of the wisps of smoke, swishes and knock over the glass prison holding Chandler.

Sebastian releases the black horses that start to whinny meaning something bad.  Two minions start to float and fly ahead of them.  “Go!  I don’t care what you do with the others, but finish the boy!  Kill him!  And have fun,” he added.

 

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

 

            In Paris sitting down in her study, Sophia had her hands covering her face.  When she lowered them, anyone could see a much older and sadder Sophia.  “Take him away, Rachel.”

            A young woman with long black hair and a small figure comes to stand in front of the desk.

            “Haven’t these boys anything better to do than to break my heart,” Sophia said waving a hand.

            Rachel ushers the young man out the door and while he looks amazingly like Kurtis, his hair is slightly darker and his clothes don’t look right though.  The young man walks with a regal grace until he passes through the door and let’s his shoulder’s fall.

            “No more.  No more,” Sophia said with a sad voice.

            Rachel sighs, “Oh, I must say.  I thought that was him.  I’m just so shocked that he wasn’t real.  Well, he was real.  I mean he was human, of course, but not our real.  I must say, even my family was touched by him.  Yes, yes they were.”  She ran around the office fixing things, “Moved to tears with joy.  We won’t be fooled next time.  I’m going to think of really hard questions next time.”

            “No, Rachel,” Sophia held up a hand, “My heart can’t take it anymore.  I will see no more boys claiming to be Kurtis.”  She walked out of the room sadly.

 

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

 

            Kurt was sitting near a fire, sleeping with Alexander in his lap.  They were waiting with the other people on the train.

            Blaine looked over Cooper’s shoulder nervously watching him forging their travel papers, “Hurry up with those.”

            Cooper glared at him, “Would you have leaned over Rememberbrand’s shoulder and told him to paint faster.”

            “It’s Rembrandt,” Blaine corrected him.

            Cooper just gave him a look, “Whatever, you still probably would.”  He hands Blaine the papers, “They’re still wet.”

            A train’s whistle blows and caused them to jump.  Cooper slides next to Kurt and shakes him, “Wake up young man, that’s our train.”

            “Wake up your highness,” Blaine corrected him.  “We should start getting used to saying it.”

            “What a world, when a man is calling a peasant ‘Your Highness,’” Cooper said rolling his eyes.

            Blaine leaned over and tugged on Kurt’s hair, “Wake up.”

            Kurt’s eyes fly open and on reflex he reaches out hitting Blaine in the nose.  Blaine falls back and lands on his bottom.

            Cooper looks over at Kurt, “We have a lot of work to do.”

            They see the train and started walking towards it.  Cooper started pushing his way towards the train getting some of the people out of the way.  He starts to climb up on the back of the train, followed by Blaine.  Blaine turned around and held his arm out, “Come on!”

            Kurt can see Blaine holding out his hand and then he realizes he can’t quite remember something.  He doesn’t know if it’s a memory or just a feeling.  He snaps out of it when Alexander pats at his feet.  Looking down, he sees the kitten and scoops him up.  He runs towards the train.

            “Take my hand,” Blaine yells over the sounds.

            Kurt holds Alexander in his hands and jumps without touching Blaine’s hand.  They walk into the small compartment that is jammed with travelers.  Suitcases and packages are balanced carefully.

            Blaine finds a space big enough for them and touches his nose, “Do you always punch people first thing when you wake up?”

            Kurt smiles sheepishly, “Sorry, it’s a reflex.  Living in an orphanage if someone bothers you, you automatically come up swinging.”

            “I wasn’t bothering you.  I was trying to wake you up,” Blaine exclaimed.

            Kurt gave Blaine a glare, “By pulling my hair?”

            “I was all out of dynamite,” Blaine said to him.  He reaches up to touch his nose again.

            Kurt leans and looks out the window, he opens it letting the fresh breeze inside.  He notices that he could reach out and grab some snow so he does.  Handing it over to Blaine, “Here put it on your nose.  For heaven’s sake, you’re making such a fuss.”

            Blaine takes the snow and holds it on his nose.  He flinches as the ice touches his face.

            Kurt rolls his eyes, “Some men are such babies.”  Blaine gives him a look.

            An elderly woman walks by with her arms loaded with packages and trying to get them into her compartment.  Kurt stands up immediately to help her, “Here, let me.”

            Blaine and Cooper pull him back down to the seat.  “You are a prince now,” Blaine said to him.

            “Royalty does not help people with their luggage,” Cooper tells him.

            Kurt just pushes the hand off of him and helps the woman anyways.

            Cooper leans over, “Well, he certainly has a mind of his own.”

            “Yes,” Blaine said leaning back and staring at Kurt helping the woman, “And I hate that in a man.”

            Holding on to Alexander, Cooper tries to keep him from running out of his arms.  Alexander starts to bat at the string hanging of Cooper’s coat.  He looks between the two and looks down at the cat shaking his head with a laugh.

            The compartment door swings open and a large guard walks in, “Papers!” he shouts to everyone.

            Everyone in the compartment rushes to get their papers out.  Blaine pulls out their papers confidently that were done with beautiful black ink.  He glances at the papers the person is holding next to him done with bright red ink.  He looks over at Cooper and scrunches his face.

            Cooper looks over and shrugs, “It’s what I hate about this government.  Everything in red.”

            The guard hands someone their papers back, “Thank you sir.”  He then approaches Blaine and Cooper.

            “What do we do now?” Cooper whispers to his friend.

            Blaine shrugs his shoulders, “Pray he’s color-blind?”  He flashes the guard a charming smile and hands him their papers.

            “Wait here,” the guard said as he turned around and left the compartment.

            Cooper and Blaine exchange looks realizing they are probably more in trouble than they ever thought they would be in.

            Kurt stands up, “I’m going to stretch my legs.”

            “That’s a good idea, a great idea,” Blaine said standing up himself, “Stretch your legs,” he pointed, “Stretch them that way.”

            Kurt looks over at him like he is crazy and walks away, “I must have hit him harder than I thought.”

            Blaine runs back in and grabs his small backpack he brought with him.  He pulls Cooper’s arm, which is carrying Alexander, and takes off with him towards the compartment he had just sent Kurt too.

            The guards burst through the doors ready to arrest the three when they realize they are no where to be found.  In the background, no one sees the three hooded minions.

            Kurt looks out the window as the country side starts to fly by and he smiles.

            The guards spot three figures at the far end of the car.  “That’s them” one of them yells, “Come on!”  They run after who they think the fugitives are, but then they grab a minion by his shoulder and turn him around.

            The minion is beak to face with one of the guards and he lets out a horrendous screech, causing another one of the minions to turn around.

            The guards yell and start to walk backwards, pushing and shoving each other out of the way.

            One of the minions spotted Kurt looking out the window, he grabs him.  But when he turns him around, he realizes it’s not Kurt, but some other guy wearing similar clothes.

            In the other corridor, Blaine and Cooper caught up to Kurt and grabbed him in each of their arms.  They hear the screams coming from the other car.

            Kurt, Blaine, and Cooper step out onto the platform and realize there is no where else left for them to run.  Only the engine is ahead of them.

            “Wait here,” Blaine yells at them.  He leaps gracefully grabbing the edge of the roof and pulls himself up.

            Kurt turns to Cooper, “Would you like to tell me what we are…”

            Blaine’s head, upside down, appears from the roof, “Come on up,” he shouts.

            “Why?” Kurt yells back.

            Cooper grabs Kurt from behind and hoists him up to Blaine.  Kurt yells as he flies up to Blaine.  The force of Cooper’s toss up caused Kurt to collide with Blaine and they fell down.  Kurt was on top of Blaine and they look at each other for a moment before Kurt rolls off of Blaine to let him catch his breath he knocked out of him.

            “Just what do you think you are doing?” Kurt asked him.

            Blaine reached up to touch his chest, “Trying…to…breathe…”

            Suddenly Alexander appears as if he was flying and lands on Blaine’s chest.  He hands him over to Kurt.  After a moment, Blaine catches his breathe and reaches down to help Cooper.

            Blaine pulls Cooper up and realizes he still doesn’t have all his breathe back, so Kurt sets down Alexander and helps pull Cooper up along with Blaine, laying him on the top of the train car.

            Blaine and Kurt let out a sigh of relief when they get Cooper up.  They both look up and see a tunnel rapidly approaching them.  The pair falls down flat on the roof and lies down with Cooper in between them.

            The minions are now climbing up the side of the train and are plunged into total darkness.

            Light hits the train as it comes out of the tunnel.  A minion reaches his hand over the edge and Blaine assumes it’s a guard.  “The guard!” he gives Kurt a shrug, “I’ll explain later.”

            They all stand up.  Kurt and Cooper follow Blaine as he heads towards the back of the train.  They run and jump over the spaces between the compartments. 

            The minions are now on the roof, and see the three of them in the short distance.

            Kurt, Blaine, and Cooper were running forward and not looking back.  Alexander is being tossed around like a football between the three of them as they jump along the cars.

            The train whistle erupts and causes Kurt to glace back to see their pursuers just as they are enveloped in the thick black smoke of the engine.  Behind them, Kurt can see another tunnel.  All of them drop down before they hit the tunnel.

            The minions weren’t so lucky and as the train roars through the tunnel, the minions explode with a colorful burst of smoke as they hit the rocks.

            Kurt stands up with a hand on his hip, “Forged papers!  Now what?”

“Now just get off the train,” Blaine said.

            “What?” Kurt asked confused.

            Blaine made a sweeping motion insinuating they were going to jump off the train. 

Kurt shakes his head, “No.”

            Cooper nods his head in agreement, “He’s right Blaine, we really are not as young as we used to…”

            Blaine shoved his brother off the top of the train with Alexander in his arms.  He then holds out his hand towards Kurt, “Come on, we’ll just together.  Take my hand.”  He looks ahead and sees the train approaching a high bridge over a rocky ravine, “Come on.”

            “No,” Kurt shook his head.

            Blaine groans, “Let’s go!”  He wraps an arm around Kurt’s waist and jumps off the top of the train.

            Cooper was rubbing his bottom as he landed in the large snow bank, “I think you hurt my ass.”

            Alexander pops up out of the snow and meows at them.

            Kurt rubs his head and looks around wondering where Blaine was until the ground below him started to move.  He jumps up in surprise.

            “You must enjoy causing me pain,” Blaine groaned rolling over on to his back.

            Kurt tugged on his shirt, “You shouldn’t have pulled me along then.”

            Cooper walked over to them with a shivering Alexander in his arms, “Is everyone alright?”

            “I’m fine,” Kurt said.

            “He’s fine,” Blaine stood up and limped over to him, “I may never walk right again, but he’s fine.”

 

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

 

            Sebastian begins pacing back and forth.  He is angry at his minions for failing.

            Chandler is nervous and fakes a yawn, “Well, I better get going.  I got a busy day letting all the blood rush to my head.”

            Sebastian reaches over and pulls him back, “He’s too far away, isn’t he?”  The reliquary glows red.  Sebastian places it back in the cabinet.  “Yes, our power is much stronger when we were near.  We must get close to him.”

            “Oy, not a road trip.  I get wagon sick, you know that,” Chandler said.

            Reaching over, Sebastian smacks him against the wall as he stomps out of the wagon.

Chandler slides down the wall, “You’re absolutely right.  Travel broadens your horizons.

Sebastian walks out of the wagon and leaps on top.  Chandler, who was still dizzy, was following behind trying to catch up.

“We’ll catch him and finish him!” Sebastian shouts grabbing the reigns, “We ride this night!”  He then looks down and can see there are no horses harnessed.  He gave a slow growl.

“Well,” Chandler smiled, “We wait this night!”

 

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

 

            Kurt was walking ahead with Cooper as Blaine followed still wet from the snow bank they fell into.

            “We have a lot of work to do, Kurt,” Cooper said to him, “Come along, Alexander.”

            The cat was chasing after the untied shoe laces on Blaine’s shoes.

            “We have to prepare you for an audience with Rachel,” Cooper said to Kurt.

            Kurt scrunched his face, “Who is Rachel?”

            “Ah, lady Rachel,” Cooper said with sigh, “She is one of the ravishing first cousins, once removed, from the royal family.  We must convince Rachel that you are the Prince before we’ll be granted a meeting with the Duchess, your aunt I mean.”

            Kurt stops dead in his tracks, it was the first he had ever heard of this.  “What?”

            Blaine wasn’t paying attention and slams into the back of Kurt.  Kurt turns to Blaine and sees him rubbing his now sore shoulder.

            “You never said anything to me about having to prove I’m a prince!” Kurt yelled at him.

            Blaine just stared at him, “You are the Prince.”

            Cooper smiled, “We are just going to refresh that memory of yours.”

            “I don’t have a memory and I’m not a prince!” Kurt yelled again.  He was outraged by this new information.  He then looks down at himself, “Even if I were—no one’s ever going to believe it.  I’m not exactly…”

            Kurt sits down on a log and let’s his head fall into his hands, “…good enough.”  He turned towards Cooper and Blaine, “I can’t go through with this.”

            Cooper looks at his younger brother who is just staring at Kurt.  He nudges Blaine with his elbow.  Blaine just gives him a look.  “Go,” Cooper whispers as he pushes Blaine towards Kurt.

            Blaine sits down beside Kurt.  He uses his hand and wipes the snow away to look into the ice, “What do you see?”

Kurt looks down and can see a dirty boy with a smudge on his face and clothes two sizes to big, “I see a skinny little nobody with no past and no future.”

            Blaine reaches over and uses snow to wipe the dirt off of Kurt’s face.  And then he swipes Kurt’s hair off to the side and uncovers his face.  Kurt is very handsome and he truly looks wonderful.  Blaine is staring into his eyes, “See, the prince is under there.”

            Cooper clapped his hands making the two on the log jump, “Ah.  Let us begin!”  He picked Kurt up off the log, “ _You were born in a palace by the sea_.”

            Kurt had wide eyes, “ _A palace by the sea?  Could it be?_ ”

“ _Yes, that's right_ ,” Cooper nodded as they walked down the road, “ _You rode horseback when you were only three_.”

Kurt smiled, “ _Horseback riding? Me?”_

Cooper gave another nod, “ _And the horse..._ ”

“ _He was white_!” Blaine jumped in singing.

“ _You made faces and terrorized the cook_ ,” Cooper sang making gestures with his arms.

“ _Threw him in the brook_ ,” Blaine laughed.

Kurt smiled, “ _Was I wild_?”

Blaine nodded his head as he walked beside them, “ _Wrote the book_!”

“ _But you'd behave when your father gave that look_!” Cooper sang trying to intimate the look King Burt once gave.

“ _Imagine how it was_ ,” Blaine sang.

Cooper waved his arms in the air, “ _Your long-forgotten past_.”

The two hooked their arms into Kurt’s arms, “ _We've lots and lots to teach you and the time is going fast_!”

Kurt stood proudly, “ _All right.  I'm ready_!”

“ _Now, shoulders back and stand up tall_ ,” Cooper sang fixing Kurt’s posture.

            Blaine showed Kurt how to walk, “ _And do not walk, but try to float_.”

            Kurt started walking, “ _I feel a little foolish.  Am I floating_?”

            Cooper laughed, “ _Like a little boat_!”

“ _You give a bow_ ,” Cooper sang bowing.

“ _What happens now_?” Kurt sang.

Cooper smiled, “ _Your hand receives a kiss_!”  Blaine grabbed his hand and kissed his hand.  Kurt blushed as he looked down at his hand.

            Cooper and Blaine linked arms and sang together, “ _Most of all remember this_.”

Cooper pointed at himself, “ _If I can learn to do it, you can learn to do it_.”

“ _Something in you knows it_ ,” Blaine sang out.

Their voices joined together, “ _There's nothing to it_!”

“ _Follow in my footsteps, shoe by shoe_ ,” Cooper walked and Kurt followed behind him.

“ _You can learn to do it too_!” Blaine and Cooper sang out to Kurt.

They were now sitting at small table and had Kurt sitting in front of it with a bowl of broth in front of him.  Cooper adjusted his arms, “ _Now, elbows in and sit up straight_.”

Blaine shook his head, “ _And never slurp the stroganoff_.”

Kurt waved a hand with a laugh, “ _I never cared for stroganoff_.”

“ _He said that like a Hummel would_ ,” Cooper laughed out loud.

Blaine waved his arms in the air, “ _The Samovar_.”

“ _The caviar_ ,” Cooper added.

Kurt stood up, “ _Dessert and then goodnight_?”

            Blaine shook his head while Cooper pushed him back down into his chair, “ _Not until you get this right_!”

            Suddenly they were riding on horses and Cooper was bouncing up and down, “ _If I can learn to do it_.”

            Blaine wasn’t riding as steady as his brother was, “ _If he can learn to do it_.”

Cooper held onto the reigns watching as Kurt rode with poise, “ _You can learn to do it_!”

“ _You can learn to do it_ ,” Blaine sang watching as Kurt guided the horse to jump up over a log gracefully on the ground.

“ _Pull yourself together_ ,” Cooper sang.

“ _And you'll pull through it_ ,” the two men sang.

Cooper waved an arm in the air, “ _Tell yourself it's easy_.”

“ _And it's true! You can learn to do it too_!”  While the two sang, Blaine was thrown off his horse landing in a pile of mud.

            The threesome had switched over to sitting on the back of a cart, “ _Next, you must memorize the names of the royalty_ ,” Cooper said getting a few papers out, “ _Now here we have Kropotkin_.”

“ _Shot Potemkin_ ,” Blaine added.

Cooper grinned, “ _In the Botkin_.”

            Kurt had a surprised look on his face, “Oh!”

“ _And dear old uncle Vanya loved his vodka_ ,” Cooper explained.

Blaine looked at Kurt, “ _Got it Kurt_?”

            Kurt shook his head, “ _No_.”

            Cooper held the paper closer to him, “ _The Baron Pushkin_.”

“ _He was..._?” Kurt sang trying to find the right word.

“ _Short_ ,” Blaine sang for him.

Cooper took Kurt’s hand and spun him, “ _Count Anatoly_.”

“ _Had a…_ ” Kurt still wasn’t getting it.

“ _Wart_!” Blaine sang to him.

“ _Count Sergei_ ,” Cooper quizzed him.

Blaine pointed to his head, “ _Wore a feathered hat_.”

“ _I hear he’s gotten very fat_ ,” Cooper sang gesturing towards his belly.

Kurt stood proudly, “ _And I recall his yellow cat_!”

Cooper and Blaine looked at one another confused, “ _I don't believe we told him that_.”

Kurt was now walking along and Cooper used his hand to lift his head to stand up straighter, “ _If you can learn to do it, I can learn to do it_!”

Cooper shrugged, “ _Don't know how you knew it_.”

Kurt smiled, “ _I simply knew it!  Suddenly I feel like someone new._ ”

“ _Kurt, you are a dream come true_ ,” Blaine and Cooper sang out.

They were now walking along a harbor and heading towards a boat.  Kurt sang out strong, “ _If I can learn to do it_.”

Cooper and Blaine laughed, “ _You can learn to do it_!”

            “ _You can learn to do it_ ,” Kurt grabbed Blaine and Cooper’s arms.

            “ _Pull yourself together_ ,” Cooper and Blaine sang.

            They all joined together singing, “ _And you’ll pull through_.”

Cooper pulled them towards the boat, “ _Tell yourself it's easy_.”

“ _And it's true_ ,” the three voices joining together again.

“ _You can learn to do it_ ,” Blaine and Cooper stepped onto the ship.

Kurt followed behind them, “ _Nothing to it_!”

They all turned back around and sang, “ _You can learn to do it too_!”  Alexander chased them at their heels.

Later that night, Kurt was trying on clothes that Blaine had apparently acquired from somewhere and he was trying them on.  “No, I look ridiculous!” he shouted from behind a closed door.

            “Come out,” Cooper groaned, “I know you can do alterations on it.”

            “You’ll laugh,” Kurt grunts out.

            Cooper shook his head, “No I won’t.”

            “Not you,” Kurt said, “Him.”

            Blaine knew he was talking about him, “I won’t laugh.  I swear.”

            The door opens and Kurt steps out in a pair of pants that is much too big for him and shirt that swallows him up.  His hair is disheveled from the changing.  The vest nearly fits, and the blue color does bring out his eyes.

            Blaine couldn’t help himself, he just started laughing.

            “You said you wouldn’t laugh,” Kurt pointed at him.

            “It’s not you,” Blaine said still laughing, “It’s the outfit.”

            Kurt storms back through the door and slams it shut behind him.  He sighs as he leans on it.  Alexander is in the room and staring up at him.  “I’m never going to be…” he freezes as he looks at himself.  When he shut the door, his clothes got caught and he saw his thinner figure, “Well, maybe I am.”

            Kurt sets to work right away.  He uses the small sewing kit and starts to alter the clothes.  Knowing it will look better because he hasn’t met a piece of cloth he can’t sew.

            About an hour later Blaine is leaning on Cooper and the door opens once again.  It reveals a now wonderfully dressed Kurt.  He always must have fixed his hair, because it was now standing up and coiffed off to the side.  His clothes are fitted correctly showing off his figure in a princely manner.

            Blaine’s eyes are wide as he looks at Kurt amazed.

            Kurt walks by them and then throws them a look over his shoulder.

            The day at sea isn’t the easiest for Blaine because of his sea sickness, but he does what he can.  Cooper continues to quiz Kurt on the family.

Into the night, they are all sitting on the deck when some of the ships men begin playing on instruments.  Cooper sees it as a wonderful opportunity.  He walks over to the men and whispers over to them.

            Cooper then walks over to Kurt and holds out a hand.  “You want me to dance with you?” Kurt asked confused.

            Cooper laughed, “Well you certainly aren’t going to learn from anyone else,” he tosses his head in Blaine’s direction.

            Kurt smiles, “Fine.  I’ve never done this before.”

            “Fair enough,” Cooper said as he took Kurt’s hand and placed their hands where they need to be, “Just like this.”  They begin to waltz around on the ship.

            Blaine feels his stomach beginning to feel better and he spies the two dancing.  He looks at Kurt and realizes maybe he judged him a bit too hard at first.  He saw Cooper look over at him and waved his hand over.

            Blaine stood up slowly and walked over to them.  Cooper let go of Kurt.  Blaine gave a bow, “May I have this dance?”

            Kurt giggled and took Blaine’s hand, “Yes, it would be an honor.”

            Blaine pulled Kurt close and they began to waltz.  Cooper honestly couldn’t believe his eyes.  The way Blaine and Kurt were looking at each other really shouldn’t have surprised him.  He looked down to see Alexander lying beside him and he started to sing.

 

_It's one-two-three and suddenly_

_I see it at a glance --_

_He's radiant_

_And confident and born to take this chance._

_I taught him well._

_I planned it all!_

_I just forgot...romance!_

_Cooper, how could you do this?_

_How will we get through this?_

_I never should have let them dance!_

            Kurt looks into Blaine’s eyes, “I feel a little dizzy.”

            “Kind of light-headed,” Blaine said as they stopped dancing.

            “Yeah,” Kurt nodded his head with a short small nod.

            Blaine gave him a small smile, “Me too.  Probably from spinning, maybe we should stop.”

            Kurt smiled back, “We have stopped.”

            “Kurt, um I…” Blaine started to say.

            “Yes?” Kurt asked and then they were leaning in close.

            Blaine pulled away quickly realizing what was about to happen, “You’re doing fine.”  He patted Kurt’s shoulder and walked off.

            Kurt looked taken back as Blaine walked away from him.  He went and sat down next to Cooper.  Alexander crawled into his lap falling asleep almost immediately.

            Later in the evening they were in their cabin.  Cooper was sleeping on the top bunk of the bed, snoring loudly.  Kurt was laying and looking up at the ceiling thinking, Alexander was sleeping next to him.

            Blaine was sitting on the ground on a cot.  He volunteered to sleep on the ground saying he could sleep anywhere.  “Hey, I wanted to show you something.”

            Kurt turned and looked over at Blaine, “What’s that.”

            Blaine reached into his bag and pulled out a small music box, he handed it to Kurt.

            “It’s so beautiful,” Kurt said turning it over in his hands, “And sad.”

            Blaine’s eyes widened, “Sad?”

            Kurt looked up, “Lost.  It feels lost.  This was his?”

            “Yeah, well yours,” Blaine shrugged, “You still don’t believe that you’re the prince do you?”

            “I know I must have something to do with the palace,” Kurt said, “I’ve had little flashes of things.  But being a prince?  It doesn’t matter as long as I find my home.”

            “Well, the only thing you’ve got when you’ve got a home is fear of losing it,” Blaine said bitterly, “You’re lucky you don’t remember the revolution.  I never had much, but what I did have I lost.”

            “I’m sorry,” Kurt said quietly.

            Blaine looked over at Kurt, “Hey, it doesn’t matter.  You got to make your own way in the world.  Don’t be sorry for me.  I’m going to get what I want don’t you worry.”  He crawls over to his cot and lies down.

            Kurt knows Blaine isn’t all that serious about what he just said.  He certainly doesn’t remember, but he can only imagine what it’s like to lose everything.  Lying back down on his own bed, he holds the music box close and closes his eyes.

 

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

 

            A wagon sits on the edge of a high cliff.  A closer look inside reveals Sebastian who is staring out a window demonically, “He is out there.”

            Chandler shivered, “I’m getting a chest cold.”

            “Chandler,” Sebastian said stroking his chin, “A question.”

            “I’m getting pneumonia.  I have a fever,” Chandler said wobbling over towards Sebastian, “Feel my forehead.”

            “What do you think is the most humiliating way to die?” Sebastian asked still looking out the window.  Then he gets an idea standing up suddenly from his chair, he causes the table to sway from side to side. 

Chandler falls down holding his head, “My cousin Misha, nice fellow, had some dental problems.  You didn’t want to watch him eat, let’s put it that way.”

Sebastian walks around the room as Chandler keeps talking.

“Anyway, a bunch of other bats were hanging in the belfry, I know, cliché.  But there you have it and Misha, not the brightest bat in the world, decides to hang in the bell.  Which is fine for awhile until it starts ringing.”  He shivered, “Eww, what a mess.”

Ignoring his friend, Sebastian touches the reliquary, “You know what to do.”  He starts moving his hands around and smokes starts to emit from the reliquary.  The smoke travels out the window and across the land.  It flies over the sea and onto a ship.

The smoke travels through the ship and floats into the cabin with the three friends inside.  It glides across the floor and floats over to where Kurt is sleeping soundly.

Kurt’s closed eyes flutter and he is dreaming.  He is dreaming about a giant field and there is a small child there.  The child beckons him to follow. 

Kurt pushes the blankets off of himself and starts to sleep walk while chasing after the child in his dream. 

Alexander wonders what is wrong with Kurt, so he tries to follow him only to be shut in the face by the door.

Kurt walks to the deck of the ship where a storm is tossing the ship back and forth.  It causes his steps to make him fall backward, but not fall over.

Back in the cabin, Alexander starts to hop on Blaine’s chest trying to wake him.  Blaine groaned and tried to push the cat away, “Alex stop.”

Alexander finally pounced hard and let his claws strike Blaine’s chest.

Blaine sat up with a groan grabbing the cat, “What is Alexander?  What are…” he looked over at the bed and saw it was empty, “Kurt!”

The cat starts to walk over to the door and claws at it.

Blaine gets out of bed and rushes out the door, slamming into the wall as he turns a corner.

On the deck, Kurt is still dream walking and he gets on the ledge of the ship.  The young boy in his dream is walking over to an edge and he looks.  He sees two smiling happy people, calling him down. 

Blaine starts to slip as he races to the ship’s deck and squints his eyes to look through the rain.  He instantly spots Kurt about to jump off the side of the ship.

In Kurt’s dream the people change into giant minions that he has never seen before and try to pull him off the edge were the water became lava.  They are yelling at him about the Hummel curse.  He screams for help, but no one is there.

Blaine runs over and grabs Kurt by the waist.  He pulls him down with Kurt fighting him for some reason.  He guesses it’s the dream he is having.

“No,” Kurt mumbles in his sleep, “No.”

“Kurt wake up,” Blaine shakes him as he has him safely on the ground, “Wake up Kurt. Wake up.”

Kurt’s eyes flutter open and he is breathing heavy.  He doesn’t know where he is, but he sees Blaine’s face, “The curse.  The Hummel curse.”

“What?” Blaine asked worriedly, “What is it?”

“Faces, I keep seeing so many faces,” Kurt falls to his knees and shoves his face into Blaine’s shirt.

Blaine lowers himself to the ground and hugs Kurt.  Kurt’s head is pillowed on his shoulder, “It’s alright.  It was a nightmare.  You’re safe now.”  He holds onto Kurt tighter as he cries.

Back outside of the wagon miles away, Sebastian yells, “Nooo!”  He was looking upon the entire scene in his reliquary.

Chandler just shakes his head, “Boy, don’t you hate it when that happens?”

“He leads a charmed life, that little Porcelain one,” Sebastian growls, “Someone is always there to save him.  In the palaces as a child, on the train, and now…it’s him.”

The reliquary’s image changes over to Blaine’s picture, who is still holding tight to Kurt comforting him.

“Nice looking fellow.  I mean don’t get me wrong,” Chandler said with a shrug, “I’m not attracted to him in the physical sense, but the prince…”

“You are toying with me aren’t you?” Sebastian asks the reliquary ignoring Chandler’s ramblings again, “You let me get so close.”  He squeezes the reliquary almost breaking it, but then stops, “Chandler, have you ever been to Paris?”

“Me?  No,” Chandler shook his head, “Rich food, it kills me.  Ever try and fly after one of those heavy sauces?”

Sebastian returns the reliquary back to its cabinet.  “We are going to Paris, and while we are there, let’s kill the young curly haired man.  Or at least have him as my prisoner,” he smiled mischievously.

 

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

 

The next morning the ship arrives at the harbor.  As Kurt walks down the plank, the bag he is carrying, the strap gets caught on a nail.  He yanks on the strap and as it comes loose his arm hits Blaine in the stomach that was walking behind him.

“Oh,” Kurt said turning around, “I’m sorry.”

Blaine just rubbed his stomach, “It’s okay.  Didn’t hurt.”

Cooper was walking behind them and looked down at Alexander who was now sitting on his shoulder, “Oh boy,” he said out loud clearly noticing the different looks the two were now giving one another.

Kurt spots a sign and he breathes out of relief.  The sign states that Paris is exactly thirty kilometers from this spot.  He sighs, “I’m almost there.  I’m finally going to know.”

Blaine walks over to where Cooper is standing, “So how is our current financial status?”

“If I used the word bleak,” Cooper said to him, “I would be optimistic.”

As they talk an elderly woman with two dogs walk by.  The dogs are two obnoxious pugs that seem to think they own the port.  Blaine and Kurt exchanged looks.

“The ‘Dalton Dunk?’” Cooper proposes.

Blaine nodded, “It worked in Dalton.”

Cooper picks up the cat on his shoulder and pats his bottom to wake him up.  Alexander gives him a look only a cat who has just woken up will give and he tosses him in the direction of the pugs.

The pugs see the cat and Alexander is startled by the dogs, so he runs with the dogs chasing after him.  He has the dogs chase after him until he jumps up on the side of the ship and the pugs fly into the harbor unable to jump.  They land in the water and are unable to stay afloat.

“Help!  My little dogs!” the old woman cries, “Chevalier!  Maurice!  Hold on, darlings!”

Blaine runs over looking as gallant as he can, “I’ll save them Madame.”  He dives into the water.

Cooper runs over to woman, “Such bravery!  Why that man should be rewarded!  Amply rewarded!”

A few minutes later, Blaine is counting coins and hands them over to Cooper to put in the wallet he has.

Kurt walks over with his arms crossed over his chest, “That was brave of you.”

Blaine is waiting for something to happen and then he feels a kiss on his cheek.  Kurt then walks away picking up Alexander and cooing.

Cooper looks over at Blaine who is blushing, “I won’t say a word.”

They acquired a car and Cooper was driving, badly.  Alexander is lying down next to him holding onto the passenger seat with his claws in the seat.

Blaine and Kurt are sitting in the back seat.  “Nervous?” Blaine asked him.

Kurt let out a sigh, “Yes, if I can’t convince Rachel, I’ll never be able to see Sophia.”

“You’ll convince her,” Blaine said positively, “You have the qualities of the prince and you’re poised and strong.  And handsome, even if you forget a couple dates and family names, she’ll know.”

Kurt smiles over at Blaine, knowing that all of the confidence he has is because of Blaine.  He reaches down and takes Blaine’s hand, but turns his head to look out the window.

They pull up in front of a beautiful white house.  Kurt is nervous as they walk up the sidewalk.  Cooper is in front of them and walks straight to the front door.  He knocks three times.

The door opens and reveals a woman with longer black hair and brilliant smile, “Oh my.  Cooper Anderson?”

“It is I,” Cooper bowed, “And Lady Rachel, may I present, his royal highness Prince Kurtis,” he said introducing Kurt.

“Oh good,” Rachel said with a look and then shrugs, “We haven’t seen a Kurtis in weeks.”  Her shoulders fell.

Kurt looks over at Blaine who is confused by the last comment.  Blaine makes a small sign saying she is slightly crazy.  They all walk inside the house.

Walking into the drawing room, Kurt fiddles with the hem of his vest nervously.  “Here stand over here,” Blaine whispers to him.

Kurt walks to the middle of the room and looks at the woman in front of him.  She circles around him, “He does certainly look like Kurtis.  But so do many of the others.”

“Why don’t you ask him a few questions,” Cooper suggests.

Rachel sends him a look, “I was going to do that.  Now then, let’s see,” she grabs her clipboard and flips a few pages, “I will ask you a few questions now.”

“Of course,” Kurt nodded his head.

“Where were you born?” Rachel asked him beginning the questioning.  She looked up at him with intense eyes.

Kurt smiled, “At the McKinley High Palace.”

“Correct,” Rachel checked off the question with her pen.

What feels like almost an hour later Blaine feels himself start to fall asleep when Cooper elbows him.  Blaine shakes his head and looks over at Kurt, the real Kurtis couldn’t have grown up to be anymore handsome, he says to himself.  It was the first thought he had when he looked at him.

“This is a hard one,” Rachel said to Kurt, “How did you escape during the sage at the palace?”

Cooper and Blaine immediately exchange nervous looks.  They had never briefed Kurt on his one mostly because they hadn’t known themselves.  Well Blaine knew, he just never told Cooper about it.

Kurt looks down for a moment and then smiles.  He looks up at Rachel, “There was a boy, a boy who worked in the palace.  He opened a wall,” he was concentrating on his memory.  He then chuckles, “I’m sorry, that’s crazy, walls opening.”

Blaine is shocked and stares at Kurt.  He now knows this is the Prince Kurtis Hummel and he can’t believe he found him.  His heart begins to ache with the information.

“Yes, yes,” Rachel nodded her head not sure what to make of this information.  She just stares at him.

“So,” Cooper asked, “Is he a Hummel?”

“Well,” Rachel shrugged standing up setting down her clipboard, “He did answer every question correctly.”

None of them notice Blaine walk out into the garden in the back of the house.

Cooper grinned, “Well than when do we meet the Duchess?”

Rachel walked over to the desk and set her clipboard down, “I’m afraid you don’t.  Sophia is refusing to see anymore boys.”

“Perhaps you could convince her?” Cooper asked walking over to Rachel.

Rachel let out a sigh, “Oh I couldn’t do that.”  She then looks back over at Kurt, “You know, she is going to be at the ballet this evening.  The Lima Ballet is here tonight.  And we never miss it.”  She walks over to Kurt and pulls him out of the chair he is sitting in, “Come my dear, we’ve much to talk about,” and pulled him over to the couch.

 Cooper smiles wide and exits walking into the garden, he runs over to Blaine, “We did it!  We did it kid!  We’re going to meet the Duchess at the ballet tonight and we’re going to be rich!  Rich!”

Blaine nodded slowly, “But it’s not the money, Cooper.”

Cooper is shocked at his friend, “Are you feeling alright?”

“He is the prince,” Blaine said in a quiet voice as he is somehow still now believing himself but he knows it true.

“Kurt was extraordinary,” Cooper waved his hands around, “And then Rachel.”

Kurt runs out of the house, “Rachel wants to take us shopping for the ballet!” he said excitedly, “Shopping in Paris.  Can you believe it?”

Rachel takes them all shopping and has Cooper and Blaine go one way, while she pulls Kurt in another direction.  “Here we are,” Rachel said excitedly showing him the clothes.

Kurt’s eyes widened, “Oh my god.”

“I know,” Rachel said letting out a giggle.

Kurt reached up and touched the fabric on the hangers, “These are beautiful.”

“Only the best for a prince,” Rachel smiled over at him.  She wasn’t absolutely sure whether this was the real Kurtis or not, but she wasn’t exactly not convinced he wasn’t him.

“I’m speechless,” Kurt said and then squealed, “Where can we start?”

“Anywhere you want,” Rachel said.

Kurt picked up a shirt, “Can I try this one on?”

“You can try anything you want,” Rachel said as she watched Kurt look at all the clothes in front of him.  That was definitely something that Kurtis used to love was clothes.

Kurt held a shirt up to himself, “So, anyone you are planning on impressing tonight?” he teases.

Rachel lets out a small laugh and shakes her head, “No, my betrothed actually died in the revolution.  I’ve tried moving on, but my heart still belongs with him.”

Kurt scrunches his face, “Finn?”

“Yes,” Rachel smiles over at him, “Cooper is just a wonderful friend.  They knew one another before.  But what about you?”

“What about me?” Kurt asked picking up a pair of trousers.

Rachel walked over to him, “Am I suppose to believe that you and this Blaine have nothing going on between the two of you?”

Kurt blushed and looked down, “I…well…I don’t know.  How do you know?”

Rachel picked up one of the piles Kurt had, “We will just have to wait and see I suppose.  Let’s try these on.”  She started walking towards the dressing room.  “Here you are, try on whatever you want.”

On the other side of the store, Cooper was throwing things at Blaine to catch.  “I just don’t know what you are talking about,” Cooper said.

“There is nothing to talk about,” Blaine said with a sad voice.

“I think you somehow got way to emotionally invested,” Cooper said taking a shirt off one of the racks and throwing it at Blaine.  The shirt landed on his head.

Blaine pulled the shirt off, “Would you stop.  We just need an outfit for the ballet.”

“Exactly,” Cooper shrugged, “I have no clue what to pick out.”

Blaine groaned and tossed everything that he was holding on to a table.  “This way,” he led the way.  “I will pick us out something to wear.”

“I knew all those magazines were for more than just the handsome men,” Cooper teased him.

Blaine turned to glare at him, “Just try this on,” he pulled a suit jacket off one of the racks and shoved it at Cooper.

About an hour later, Blaine exits the store first pulling on the blazer he is wearing.  Kurt quickly follows and spins with the tails on his coat flowing behind him.  He grabs Blaine by the arm.  Rachel and Cooper follow and smile at them.

            An accordion player and flower seller give each other a wink and the man holding the accordion starts to play and sing, “ _Lovers_!”

            The woman holds out a few flowers, “ _Ooh la la_!”

            Rachel walks over and takes the flowers with smile.  She begins to sing.

 

_Welcome, my friends, to Paris._

_Here, have a flower on me._

            She hands Kurt a flower, he hands the flower to Blaine.

 

_Forget where you’re from_

_You’re in France!_

_Children come!_

_I’ll show you that French joie de vivre!_

_Paris_ _holds the key to your heart._

_And all of Paris plays a part._

            The group starts to walk down the street.  The accordion player and flower seller sings with one another, “ _Just stroll two by two.  Down what we call ‘la rue.’_ ”

            Everyone in the street starts to sing along with them and Rachel.

 

_And soon all Paris_

_Will be singing to you!_

_Ooh la la,_

_Ooh la la,_

_Ooh la la!_

            Different people each sing the next lines and joining in together singing the last line.

 

_Paris_ _holds the key to l’amour!_

_And not even Freud knows the cure._

_There’s love in the air!_

_At the Follies Begere!_

_The French have it down to an art!_

_Paris_ _holds the key to your heart!_

            Rachel takes Kurt’s hand and pulls him along sing to him as they walked with Cooper and Blaine chasing after them.

_When you’re feeling blue_

_Come to Le Moulin_

_When your heart says don’t,_

_The French say do!_

            Can Can Girls from outside the theatre they playing at appear in front of them, “ _When you think you can’t, you’ll find you can can_!”

            Rachel smiles and joins in singing, “ _Everyone can can can_!”  She runs in front of the girls and sings with them.

 

_You can can can too!_

_Whee!_

_Whee!_

_Whee!_

            Blaine stands off to the side and can see Kurt falling in love with the city just as he watches him.  This is where Kurt belongs.  This is his home.

 

_Paris_ _holds the key to his past._

_Yes, Prince, I’ve found you at last._

_No more pretend,_

_You’ll be gone,_

_That’s the end._

            The music is picked back up and they somehow were now in a theatre dancing with everyone.  “ _Paris_ _holds the key to your heart!_ ”

            A woman dances with Kurt for a moment, “ _You’ll be ‘tres jolie’ and so smart!_ ”  Kurt is spun away.

            A man runs up to Rachel and smiles, “ _Come dance through the night._ ”

            “ _And forget all your woes,_ ” another man in the chorus sings.

“ _The city of light,_ ” everyone with Rachel sings.

The man in the car sings, “ _Where a rose is a rose!_ ”

Everyone joins in again singing with Rachel as the lead.

_And one never knows what will start_

_Paris_

_Holds the key…_

            Blaine looks over at Kurt sadly singing, “ _To his…_ ”

           

_Heart!_

_Ooh la la!_

_Ooh la la!_

            The four newfound friends excitedly run off to have more discoveries in Paris.  While along the outskirts of the town there is wagon parked and a man inside not happy.

            “Paris holds the key to my heart,” Chandler sings quite off key, “French bat men hang out at Montmartre.  We’ll eat some insects then go back and have—”

            Sebastian cuts him off, “Shut up!” he roars.

            Chandler stops, “Sorry, it’s just you know I saw those French postcards once and ooh la la…well, I’m not sure about the ‘ooh,’ but it’s the ‘la la’ I’m really looking forward to.”  Sebastian lets out a growl, “Right, I’m shutting up now,” he said.

            Sebestian leans to look closer into the reliquary, which now has some of the brightest colors it’s ever seen.  “We’re close to him, aright we?”

            The reliquary brightens even more as if it’s about to bust.

            “Excited, eh?” Sebastian said, “You look about to burst.  You’d like to burst, wouldn’t you?”  He holds the lantern in his hands, “No no no, we made a bargain.  Someday you’ll have me for all eternity.  Until then, I’m in charge,” he slams the cabinet door shut.

            Chandler is looking at him like he is crazy, but grabs a small beret that is off to the side.  He puts it on, “What do you think?  Is it me?”

            Back in the city of Paris, in front of a large fancy hotel, Blaine and Cooper are waiting for Rachel and Kurt to come out.  Cooper is wearing a tuxedo, something he hasn’t worn in a long time.  He thinks he looks quite handsome in it himself.

            Blaine is sitting on the stairs, wearing a tuxedo also.  He even had a bowtie around his neck.  He does look quite dapper, but he just keeps replaying what Kurt said in the room earlier about Blaine saving him.

            Suddenly Cooper starts pacing nervously, “I just have this feeling in my stomach all of sudden.”

            Blaine sighs, “You do realize that we have nothing to be nervous about.  He is the prince.”

            “I know,” Cooper said sitting down beside him, “I know.”

            “No you don’t know,” Blaine stood up and almost ran a hand through his hair if it didn’t have all the gel in it, “I was the boy, the boy in the palace, who opened the wall that was me.  He’s the real thing Cooper.”

            Cooper’s eyes widened, “Holy crap.  You know what that means?”  He couldn’t believe any of it, “That means that our Kurt has found his family.  We found the heir to the Lima throne.”  He then turns towards Blaine and his smile falls, “And you…”

            “Will walk out of his life forever,” Blaine walks away from Cooper.

            Cooper looks at his friend, “But…”

            “Princes don’t marry kitchen boys,” Blaine said to him with a shrug.

            Cooper tried to stop him, “I know, but you…”

            “We are going to go through with this as if nothing has changed,” Blaine told him.

            “You’ve got to tell him,” Cooper said.

            A voice then rang out, “Tell me what?”

            Blaine turned around and he saw Kurt.  He was the most handsome man he had ever seen, but the outfit he was wearing just made him look even more beautiful.  He was wearing a jacket that ended at his waist with tails on the back and made him look tall.  The suit was almost black, but it was dark midnight blue and brought out the color in his eyes.  His hair was now neatly styled on top of his head and he saw a few highlights running through it.

            Blaine freaks out and can’t find words, “Umm…oh…how amazing you look.”

            “Well thank you,” Kurt smiles shyly.

            Holding out his arm for Kurt, “Shall we?” Blaine asks him.

            Kurt takes Blaine’s arm and they start to walk down the steps.  Rachel appears at Cooper’s side and she looks over at him as if she knows what’s going on between the two. 

“Ready?” Cooper asked holding out his own arm.

            “Yes,” Rachel smiles as they walk down the steps and towards the car themselves.

            The four get in the car and arrive at the opera house.  They all walk inside and take off their jackets handing them to the man.  Blaine looks up and sees Kurt is already up the stairs with everyone watching him.

            The lights reflect around Kurt and he looks amazing.  Blaine shakes his hand and runs up the stairs following him.  He once again offers his arm to Kurt and they walk inside together.  They sit down and Blaine looks for the box seats spotting them immediately.  “Look, there is your aunt.”

            Kurt takes the small binoculars from him and looks.  He let’s out a small gasp, “She’s so beautiful.  I do remember her.  I remember her.”  He repeats the words to himself over and over again.

            The show begins, but Kurt can’t seem to take his eyes off the woman he knows in his heart is his aunt.  He doesn’t even realize when it’s intermission.  Blaine takes Kurt’s hand, “Come on.  It’s time.”

            They exit out the back and start to walk towards the private box.  Kurt freezes, “I’m so scared.”

            Blaine turns towards him giving him a warm smile, “Don’t be.”

            “And grateful,” Kurt finishes, “To you.  If it weren’t for you,” he reached out to Blaine.

            Blaine pulled back, “I know,” he answers quietly and sadly.  “Now wait here,” he tells him and opens the door to the private box.  He walks inside, “Please inform her majesty, the Duchess, that I have found her nephew, Prince Kurtis.  He is waiting to see her just outside the door.”

            Rachel holds out her hand, remembering their plan, “I’m very sorry young man, but the Duchess is not seeing anyone.”

            Suddenly Sophia starts talking, “Tell that ridiculous young man that I have seen enough Prince Kurtis’ to last me a lifetime.”

            “You better go,” Rachel said starting to push him out now worried about her oldest friend.

            “Please,” Blaine said, “Let me just…”

            “Now if you’ll excuse me,” Sophia said holding up a hand, “I wish to live out the reminder of my lonely life in peace.”

            “I will see you to the door,” Rachel said sadly, she really hoped that Sophia would see one more boy.  She believes that Kurt may be the real thing.  She starts to walk away thinking Blaine is behind her.

            Blaine doesn’t want to take no for an answer.  He walks through the curtains, “Look, your majesty I intend you no harm,” he sits down beside her, “My name is Blaine.  I used to work at the palace.”

            “Well that’s one I haven’t heard,” Sophia stands, “I must say.”  She starts to leave out of the box.

            “No, wait,” Blaine follows her, “Don’t go please.  If you’ll just hear me out.”

            “I know what you are after,” Sophia points to him, “I’ve seen it before many of times, young men and woman trying to trick me in all the ways.”  She reached up and rung a bell.  “Haven’t you been listening?”

            “But your majesty, if you would just listen,” Blaine told her.

            “I’ve had enough,” Sophia said, “I don’t care how much you have fashion this boy to look like him.  Sound like him or act like him.  In the end it never is him.”

            “This time it is him,” Blaine begged.

            “Blaine,” Rachel said to him trying to calm him down.

            Sophia turned and looked straight at him, “Blaine, I’ve heard of you.  You’re that con man from St. McKinley who was holding auditions to find a Kurtis look-a-like.”

            In the hall, Kurt gasped and put a hand over his mouth.

            “But your grace,” Blaine begged again, “We’ve come all the way from Lima just to see you.”

            “I don’t care if you come from Timbuktu,” Sophia said and waved her hand.

            “It’s not that,” Blaine sighed, “It’s much more than that.”

            Sophia points at him, “How much pain will you inflict on an old woman for money?”

            “Please, if you’d just listen,” Blaine just wanted her to listen to him.  He certainly realized where Kurt got his stubbornness from.

            Guards appeared at the door and grabbed Blaine.

            “Remove him at once,” Sophia said to them.

            Blaine tried to fight them off, “But he is Kurtis!  He’s the prince if you only speak to him you’ll see!”  And the guards threw him out the door in front of Kurt.

            Kurt looks down at him with tears in his eyes, “How could you?” he asked and then he turns and runs off.

            Blaine holds out his hand, “No, Kurt…please…”  He stands up and chases after Kurt.

            Kurt runs down the stairs and into the night.  Blaine is following right behind him, “Kurt wait!”

            “Tell me it isn’t true?” Kurt spins to look at him, “Tell me you didn’t do this for the money!”

            “No!” Blaine said, “Well, yes, but…”

            Kurt groaned, “No!  I thought you believed in me!  It was all a lie!”  He then took off running.

            Blaine didn’t know what to do now.  He sighed and looked down at the ground.  He then heard a horn honk, someone was leaving.  He lifted his head and saw the Sophia getting into the car.  He rushes over, “Sir!  Your rear tire is flat!”

            The chauffeur stops, “It is?”  He gets out and looks.

            Blaine sneaks into the car and shuts the door.  He puts the car into drive and leaves the chauffeur behind.  He starts driving fast down the road.

            “Hugo!  Slow down!” Sophia shouts from the back.

            Blaine turns and stares at her from the front seat, “I’m not Hugo and I won’t slow down until you listen to me.”

            Sophia looks outraged, “You!  How dare you.  Stop this car immediately!”

            Blaine doesn’t stop.  He just keeps on driving ignoring Sophia’s yells to stop the car continually.  Suddenly he stops the car in front of the hotel from earlier.  He turns and is face to face with her, “Please don’t be afraid!  I’m sorry but there is no other way!”

            Sophia doesn’t know what to do now.  She could run, so she reached for the handle.

            “Look at this,” Blaine said as he thrusts the music box into her hands.

            Sophia looks down and is amazed by the sight, “Kurtis’ music box.  He had this all these years,” she then knew it was all too good to be true, “You could have found it.”

            “What I found,” Blaine said, “It was your nephew’s!”

            Sophia drops the music box in her lap and looks away from him.

            “You were right,” Blaine admitted to her, “It was a lie.  My intention was to fool you.”  He then looked down sadly, “I am a liar.  But I found the truth.  It really is him.  Just see him!  I swear if you see him I’ll disappear forever.”

            Blaine sighs in defeat and then he looks up.  He sees Kurt walking back in to the hotel, “Look at him,” he points to the window, “Just talk to him.”

            Sophia tries to be stubborn, but her curiosity gets the better of her and she looks.  She sees a young man and features strikingly resemble her nephew she must admit.

            In the hotel, Kurt is packing the small bag he has with him, “I’ll find my family.  I will find them all on my own,” he angrily shuts the suitcase.  There is a knock at his door and he groans thinking its Blaine.  “Go away.”

            The door opens anyways and Kurt spins around to tell Blaine off, but it’s not him.  It’s the Duchess.  Kurt freezes and doesn’t know what to do.

            Sophia is holding the music box in her hands, “Who are you child?”  
            Kurt feels tears fall down his face, “I don’t know.  I don’t want to hurt you,” he back away.

            Sophia holds out the small music box, “Do you remember this?”

            “I remember something lost,” Kurt shrugs, “I’m so confused.  Oh, please, tell me if you recognize me!  Do you think I could have…belonged to you?” he asks as he fiddles with the key around his neck.

            Sophia stares at his hands, “Where did you get that?”

            Kurt is taken back and looks down at the key in his hands, “What.  Oh, I’ve always had it.  I came here because of this.  Tell me if you recognize it.  Please it’s all I have,” he said in defeat.

            “It was his,” Sophia reached out.  Kurt off the key and handed it to her, “My Kurtis.”  She then gets defensive, “If this is part of your scheme!  If you found it or stole it—I don’t care.  I’ll give you what ever you want just tell me the truth!”

            Kurt looks at the woman.  He reaches out himself and takes the music box and key into his hands.  He fits the small key into the music box and twists.

            Sophia is amazed that this young man knows how to work the music box and suddenly she is listening to him hum and begin singing.

            Kurt hums the first lines and then sings, “ _Things my heart used to know, things it yearns to remember._ ”

            They both begin singing together, “ _And a song someone sings, once upon a December._ ”

            “Oh, my Kurtis,” Sophia reaches up and touches Kurt’s face.  They throw their arms around each other.

            Outside on the sidewalk, Blaine looks up at the window.  He gives a sad smile up towards the window and blows a kiss.  Then he turns to start walking down the street, alone.

            Another someone outside watching in on the scene is Chandler.  He is hanging upside down and crying at the scene because of the emotions.  “Oh he is going to yell!”

            Chandler flies over to Sebastian’s wagon and he was right.

            “He’ll find his demise in that happy home!” Sebastian yells louder than he has ever yelled before.

            Flying down and landing on the window sill, Chandler sighs and sits down, “I knew I should have flown to New York when I had the chance.”

            Sebastian looks into the reliquary and can see Kurt with his aunt.  Sophia is lightly stroking through Kurt’s hair as he talks.

            “…and that Christmas dinner, when Cook made that awful plum pudding and we hid it in our pockets so we wouldn’t hurt her feelings.  I do remember so much Aunt Sophia,” Kurt smiled at her, “But not everything.”

            “Don’t worry about that now child,” Sophia said to him, “It will all come back to you now that you are home.”  Kurt hums quietly as he closes his eyes.  Sophia leans down and kisses his forehead, “My poor child you’re safe now and you are home.”  She leaves the room now that Kurt is asleep.

            Sebastian stares through the lantern and slams his hand on the counter, “I will kill him.”

            The next morning Sophia had Rachel busy planning for a ball they were going to have in honor of finding Kurt.  Sophia can’t help but notice Kurt’s face as she watches Rachel talk.

            “A grand ball for a prince,” Rachel said excitedly, “How very exciting, so much to do, in so little time to do it in.”

            “Rachel,” Sophie said a bit loud to her get attention, “Do it somewhere else, please.  Quietly.”

            “Right,” Rachel nodded her head and looked down at her clipboard, “Caterers, invitations, saber dancers.  Oh we much have saber dancers.”  She talked as she left the room.

            “You are going to make a handsome prince,” Sophia said trying to distract Kurt.

            Kurt just nods his head.

            “I know what will cheer you up,” Sophia walks over to a box and when she takes the lid off inside is a beautiful crown, “It was one of your father’s that was saved during the revolution, come over here.”

Kurt quickly walks over and Sophia places the crown on his head. 

“You have your father’s attitude, but your mother’s heart and both of their handsome features.”  Sophia turns him and he is now looking in full length mirror.  She straightens the crown on his head and smiles, “Wonderful.”  She receives no reaction, “What troubles you child?”

            Before Kurt can answer, Cooper is leaning in the room, “Madame, your…eh…guest has arrived,” he bowed.

            “Thank you Cooper,” Sophia said to him knowing exactly who is waiting for her.  She walked over to him touching his shoulder gently and leaves the room.

            Kurt is mad at Cooper, so he turns away.  Cooper takes a few steps towards him, “Kurt…Prince Kurtis, I’m sorry.  We didn’t mean to hurt you.”  Kurt stays looking down at the floor not trusting his voice.

            In the study Sophie walks in and sits down happy to see Blaine standing there looking nervous and very uncomfortable.  “I sent for you because I owe you a debt of gratitude larger than I can ever repay.”

            Blaine held out his hand, “No.  Duchess, you—”

            “I want you to have the reward money,” Sophia said to him “You’ve earned it.”

            Blaine shakes his head, “Duchess no,” he steps back, “I will not take the money!  I just came to tell you I was sorry.”

            “Young man, I…” but then Sophia stopped because Blaine reached up and brushed the hair away from his face.

            “And I’m going to keep my promise,” Blaine said pulling a hat on his head, “To stay out of your lives forever.”

            Sophia then looks over at him with great understanding and affection, “You are the boy from that night in the palace.”

            “I should go,” Blaine said taking a few steps backwards.

            “That last night in the palace, one boy showed us kindness and courage,” Sophia continued anyways, “You were the boy who saved our lives, weren’t you?”  She received no answer from Blaine, “Please, is there nothing I can do to repay you?”

            “Promise me,” Blaine finds the words to say, “Promise me he’ll have his home.”

            “He does,” Sophia nodded.

            Blaine breathed in and out hoping the tears stay away, “And tell me that he’s happy.”

            “Oh Blaine,” Sophia said, “I wish that I could.  But why the change of mind?”

            Blaine sighs, “It was more the change of heart,” he looks down.  And then Sophia realizes what exactly is going on.

            Kurt stumbles into the room wearing his crown.  His first reaction is surprised seeing Blaine there, but then straightens up and shows his confidence the best he can.

            “I’m glad you found what you were looking for,” Blaine said looking down.

            Kurt turned his head, “I’m glad you did too.”

            Blaine walks over to the door and opens it.

            “Enjoy your fortune,” Kurt said to him.

            Almost turning around, Blaine stands still.  His shoulders deflate, knowing it’s the last time he is ever going to see Kurt, as he opens the door and leaves.

            Kurt watches the door close and realizes he will never see Blaine again.

            Blaine heads back to the hotel and is busy packing all of things in the small backpack he has.  Cooper followed him with Alexander in his arms and won’t stop pestering him.

            “But this invitation came from the Duchess herself,” Cooper exclaimed, “It’s the social event of the decade!  You can’t turn it down!”

            “Watch me,” Blaine said as he tosses his backpack over his shoulder and leaves the room. 

Cooper tries to talk to him as he walks down the stairs and out the door but Blaine won’t listen to him.

“And where will you go?” Cooper finally asked him.

Blaine straightened the cap on his head, “He found his home.  Maybe it’s time I look for one of my own,” he shrugged.

Cooper looks at his brother and holds out his hand that isn’t holding Alexander, “It’s been a ride brother.”

“A good one,” Blaine reached out to shake his hand, but Cooper pulls him in for a hug.  “Goodbye Cooper.”  Alexander is crushed between them.

“Goodbye brother, stay safe,” Cooper holds him.

Blaine pulls away, giving the cat one last pet on the head and then starts to walk down the street.  He shoves his hands in his pockets and he feels something.  It was the flower that Kurt gave him just the other night.

As Blaine turns the corner he hears a voice, “So, you don’t want to go to the coronation, eh?”

Blaine spins and can see a man standing there.  He is dark robes and he swears he has seen that face before, “Sebastian!”

“I know.  I know,” Sebastian waved a hand, “You thought I was dead.  That’s how the history books remember me.  Not as the ruler of all of Lima, which I should have been!  But as the guy who was never dead when you expected him too.”

Blaine takes a step back, as smoke begins to coil around him.  Sebastian just smiles and walks closer to him, “What do you want?”

“The same thing I wanted ten years ago,” Sebastian shrugged, “All of the Hummels dead!  I got the others, now I have to finish up with that nuisance, Kurtis.”

“You’re insane!” Blaine yells at him, “You didn’t kill the Hummels!  It was the rev—”

“Stop it!  I did so kill them!” Sebastian shouts, “And I’m going to kill Kurtis!”

Blaine lunges for Sebastian, but the smokes coils around him like a rope and is holding him back.

“Look at me,” Sebastian said with a voice, “Look at me.”

The smoke forms into hands and forces Blaine to look up at Sebastian’s face.  Blaine’s eyes widened as they lock onto Sebastian’s, which are glowing red hot.  He puts Blaine in a trance.

“You are going to help me kill him,” Sebastian said to him.  “You are going to help me kill him,” he repeats.

            Chandler looks away and hides his head under his wing.  He does not like any of this.  Not one bit.

 

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

 

            The ball room is decorated with everything looking wonderful and beautiful.  Party guests are enjoying themselves all over eating, dancing, laughing and having fun.

            Prince Kurtis is now dressed just as he used too.  He wore the nicest trousers and suit ensemble.  It once again stopped at his waist giving him a very slimming effect.  It was a beautiful shade of blue and he had accents of green in his vest and buttons.  His boots are a dark brown and go up his calf, stopping at his knee.  He had glittering accents hanging from his coat as well and his father’s crown on top of his head.

            Kurt peeks out into the room spying everyone at the party.

            “Looking for someone?” Sophia asks him.

            Kurt drops the curtain he looking behind, “No one is out there that I am looking for.”

            “Are you sure that no one isn’t one of the most remarkable men who saved us and found a music box,” Sophia said to her nephew.

            “No, that no one is probably to busy spending his reward money as fast as he can,” Kurt said with almost a growl in his voice.

            Suddenly Cooper and Rachel appear in the room with them, Kurt immediately spots Alexander in Cooper’s arm.  The cat is covered in ribbons and bows with a small crown on his head, “Oh Alexander,” he lets out a small giggle, “You look miserable.  Cooper, look at him.”  He reached up and took off the crown from the cat’s head.

            Cooper bows towards Kurt, “Yes your highness.”

            “Poor Alexander,” Kurt said taking the small step away from him.

            “Yes, your highness,” Cooper nods again.

            “Cut it out Cooper,” Kurt snaps at him, “I’m not angry with you anymore.  I know how much you needed the money.”

            Cooper starts to open his mouth, but Sophia holds up a hand stopping him.  “Well then your highness…”

            “Cooper, stop acting this way.  You are my friend,” Kurt pleads.

            “It may be best if you start calling me Mr. Anderson now,” Cooper smiled at him, “But from now on I am your loyal subject.”

            Rachel and Cooper both bow once again and walk out of the room.

            “Why does everyone have to act that way?” Kurt huffs.

            “You were born into this world of glitter and jewels and fine titles,” Sophia said taking a step towards Kurt, “But I wonder if this is what you really want.”

            Kurt looks taken back, “Of course.  Of course it is.  I found what I was looking for.  I found out who I am.  I found you.  I found my home.”  He started walking away and then turned around.

            “Yes, you did find me,” Sophia said taking Kurt’s hand, “And you’ll always have me.  But is it enough?”  She pulls Kurt closer to her and hugs him, “My darling, he didn’t take the money.”

            “He didn’t?” Kurt asked confused.

            Sophia shook her head, “Knowing that you are alive and the young man you have become brings me joy I never thought I would feel again.”  She kisses him on the forehead.

            Sophia then let’s go of Kurt and walks towards the curtains, “Whatever you choose, we will always have each other.  And in your heart, you know what is right for you.”

            “Aunt Sophia, can’t you…” Kurt turned around and she was gone.  Kurt is about to follow as he opens the curtain to step out, but then he retreats.

            _Meow!_

            Kurt picks his head up, “Alexander?” he asked out loud.

            _Meow!_

            Kurt turns and can see Alexander running with the bows and ribbons falling out of his fur.  He decides to chase after him, “Alexander!”  He chases him until they are in garden and Kurt scoops up the small cat, “What are you doing silly boy.”

            “Kurt…”

            Kurt hears the voice in the distance, “Blaine?” he cocks his head to the side.

            “Kurt.”

            Running forward, Kurt follows the voice as it gets louder and standing there is Blaine.  “Blaine,” he sets the cat down, “My aunt told me.”  And then he stops walking, something isn’t right with Blaine’s eyes.  “Blaine, what’s wrong?”

            Blaine starts to walk towards Kurt slowly.

            “Throw him off the edge!” Sebastian shouts, “Do it!”

            Kurt is confused, he turns and somehow they were transported to a cliff.  He looks up at the booming voice and sees the face.  He closes his eyes and visions of memories whip past as he remembers.

            Kurt shakes his head and opens his eyes.  Suddenly Blaine’s hands are on him.  “Blaine, look at me.  It’s Kurt.  It’s Kurt!”

            Blaine stops, yet his eyes are still glazed over and frightening.

            “You saved my life in the palace!” Kurt yells at him, “You won’t take it now!”

            “Finish him!” Sebastian shouts.

            Kurt holds his ground as Blaine continues to push him closer to the edge of the cliff.

            “Blaine.  I know you would never hurt me,” Kurt shouts out at him, “You love me!”

            Kurt doesn’t know what else do, so he pulls Blaine close to him and leans in for a kiss upon his lips.  Blaine’s eyes are blinking and the haze is gone, he is soon kissing Kurt back.

            They pull back and Kurt is smiling, “Blaine?”

            “Kurt,” Blaine said amazed at what happened, and then he looks around, “Where are we?”

            There is a howl from above and then the man jumps down.  Sebastian has his reliquary tied around his waist.  He is more furious than ever, with his face filled with rage and hatred.

            Kurt feels terrified, but holds his ground just as he did when he was a child, “I guess you aren’t as powerful as you thought!”

            Sebastian steps closer to them, “I’ll show you!”

            Blaine tries to push Kurt away, “Run, Kurt!  Go!”

            Kurt holds Blaine’s hand tight, “I’m not leaving you!”

            “Fighting for the fair man,” Sebastian rolled his eyes, “How noble of you!”

            Blaine pushes Kurt away and charges towards Sebastian, but he is knocked aside with a swoop of an arm.

            “And how pathetic,” Sebastian said looking at him, “Such a pretty face too.  He then turns towards Kurt, who is looking around for a place to hide, “That is only going to make this more fun.”

            Kurt appears behind Sebastian and tries to punch him in the back, but it has the same effect as if he just hit a brick wall.  Kurt is thrown off balance and falls, his crown lands on the ground.

            Sebastian pushes Kurt with his foot and he slides across the floor to Blaine.

            Blaine and Kurt exchange a quick look as Sebastian, who is laughing, advances on them.  Kurt reaches up and grabs the front of Sebastian’s robes pulling him forward, so Blaine can punch him square in the face.

            The punch does little to Sebastian, but makes him madder.  He reaches out with his hand and picks up Kurt like a rag doll and takes him to the edge.

            “Kurt!” Blaine calls out.

            Blaine tries throwing his body against Sebastian several times, only to be batted away like a fly once again.  Off of the cliff, Blaine lands on a ledge below.

            Kurt is struggling in Sebastian’s grasp, “No Blaine!” he calls out.

            “My curse is now complete,” Sebastian yells, “Good bye Porcelain!” he let’s Kurt go.

            Kurt starts to fall but someone grabs him.  He looks and Blaine is holding his arm tight.  “Don’t let me go!”

            “I will never let you go,” Blaine yells back.  He suddenly feels himself begin to tip over the edge.  And then Blaine cries out in pain.

            “What a touching sentiment,” Sebastian said as he once again lands on Blaine’s back.

            Blaine let’s out another yell, but he doesn’t let go of Kurt’s hand.  He just can’t, he holds it tighter.  He then finds strength and pulls Kurt up enough so he can climb onto the ledge.  He then passes out from the pain.

            “Die!” Sebastian shouts, but didn’t realize that Kurt was now standing up.  Sebastian swings his reliquary and let’s go.  It flies through the air and lands onto the ground with a thud.  It rolls and is suddenly dangling on the edge.

            Kurt dives and picks it up.  He throws it on the ground, the glass starts to break. 

            Sebastian’s eyes widened, “Don’t touch that!”

            “This is for Blaine!” Kurt shouts stomping on the reliquary.  “And this is for my family!” he stomps again.  He looks up at Sebastian who is begging him not to do it anymore, “And this is for you!” he stomps on the reliquary one more time making it shatter.

            “Noooo!” Sebastian shouts.

            Evil spirits from the reliquary are released and they start to grow and swirl, making hideous moaning noises.

            Kurt runs over and covers his body over Blaine’s.

            The spirits form a tornado and make their way over to Sebastian.  He screams while they pull him off the ground.  He face disappears in the tornado and with a yell it explodes and the pieces flying everywhere disintegrates midair in wild colors and smoke.

            Kurt lifts himself up and looks down at Blaine.  He flips him over so his back is on the ground.  “Oh no,” he said touching his face.  Blaine couldn’t have died.  Alexander comes rushing over, “Blaine.”

            Kurt feels a tear fall down his face and he leans his head on Blaine’s chest and begins to cry.

            And then there is a moan and Kurt feels movement.  He lifts his head and Blaine’s eyes open.

            “Blaine!” Kurt shouts as he throws his arms around Blaine’s neck.

            “Oww,” Blaine groans, “Oh let go.  Let go.”

            “Sorry,” Kurt said pulling away letting him sit up.

            “I know, I know,” Blaine said holding his chest, “All men are babies.”

            Kurt looked into Blaine’s eyes, “I thought you were going back to St. McKinley.”

            “I was,” Blaine smiled at him.

            “And you didn’t take the…”

            “I couldn’t,” Blaine said to him.

            Kurt smiled back, “Why?”

            “Because I…I…”

            Kurt leaned in and was about to kiss Blaine again when he felt something sharp under his hand.  He pulled back and looked down, “Oh.”

            Blaine looked at the crown and picked it up.  They both slowly stood, “They are waiting for you.”

            Kurt took the crown and stared at it.  He shook his head, “I realized something.”

            “What’s that?” Blaine asked him.

            Kurt leaned in close, “Home is where the heart is,” he pulled Blaine close and pressed their lips together.  They both smiled into the kiss.

 

            ~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

 

            Sophia walked into the room and looked around.  She spotted the crown and letter resting next to it.

 

            _Dear Aunt Sophia,_

_Thank you for everything.  Don’t worry_

_we will be in Paris again soon._

_Kurt._

            Rachel walked in after her and read the letter over her shoulder.  “Oh they eloped, how romantic.”  She sighed, “What a perfect ending.”

            Sophia shook her head, “No, what a perfect beginning.”  She was proud of her nephew and couldn’t have asked for a better one.

            On a ship miles away Kurt and Blaine were standing next to one another looking out into the water.  “You know what this means,” Blaine teased.

            Kurt smiled, “I think we need a song to celebrate.”

            Blaine turned towards Cooper who was playing with a guitar in his lap, “Hit it maestro.”

            “With pleasure,” Cooper smiled and winked over at Alexander who just rolled his eyes and went back to his cat nap.

            Cooper started to play and Kurt took Blaine’s hand as he began to sing.

 

_We were strangers_

_Starting out on a journey_

_Never dreaming_

_What we’d have to go through_

_Now here we are_

_And I’m suddenly standing_

_At the beginning with you_

            Blaine smiled at him and began singing the next verse.

 

_No one told me_

_I was going to find you_

_Unexpected_

_What you did to my heart_

_When I lost hope_

_You were there to remind me_

_This is the start_

            They both sang together dancing with one another on the ship’s deck.

 

_And…_

_Life is a road_

_And I want to keep going_

_Love is a river_

_I wanna keep flowing_

_Life is a road_

_Now and forever_

_Wonderful journey_

_I’ll be there_

_When the world stops turning_

_I’ll be there_

_When the storm is through_

_In the end I wanna be standing_

_At the beginning with you_

            Blaine spun Kurt around as he sung.

 

_We were strangers_

_On a crazy adventure_

 

            Kurt laughed as Blaine sang the next line

_Never dreaming_

_How our dreams would come true._

 

            Kurt took the lead as they sang together again.

 

_Now here we stand_

_Unafraid of the future_

_At the beginning with you_

_And…_

_Life is a road_

_And I want to keep going_

_Love is a river_

_I wanna keep flowing_

_Life is a road_

_Now and forever_

_Wonderful journey_

            Leaning in for a quick kiss, Kurt spun Blaine away from him and back into his arms.

_I'll be there_

_When the world stops turning_

_I'll be there_

_When the storm is through_

_In the end I wanna be standing_

_At the beginning with you_

            Blaine jumped up on a box and reached down to bring Kurt up with him as they continued to sing.

_I knew there was somebody somewhere_

_Like me alone in the dark_

_Now I know my dream will live on_

_I've been waiting so long_

_Nothing's gonna tear us apart_

_And..._

_Life is a road_

_And I want to keep going_

_Love is a river_

_I wanna keep flowing_

            They ran over and sat next to Cooper who stood up and caused them to slide closer to one another.  Alexander meowed in an annoyance.

_Life is a road_

_Now and forever_

_Wonderful journey_

_I'll be there_

_When the world stops turning_

_I'll be there_

_When the storm is through_

_In the end I wanna be standing_

_At the beginning with you_

Blaine spread his arms out and reached for Kurt.

_Hey ay ay_

Kurt took his hand and they started singing to together.

 

_Life is a road and I wanna keep going_

_Love is a river I wanna keep going on...._

           

            Kurt sang his next line alone, before starting to sing with Blaine again.

 

_Starting out on a journey_

_Life is a road and I wanna keep going_

_Love is river I wanna keep flowing_

_In the end I wanna be standing_

_At the beginning with you._

            Blaine pulled Kurt in close as they danced on the deck of the ship together.

_Hmmmmm_

            Blaine held onto Kurt, “Where to now?”

            Kurt smiled at him, “Anywhere we want, my home is in your heart.”  He leaned his forehead on Blaine’s as they leaned in to share another kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> And the end.
> 
> I loved writing this and even though I had to watch the movie twice and read the script over three times, it was so much fun to do. I hope you all enjoyed reading it! Thank you for taking your time and reading! Tell me what you thought or if you have any questions. I love getting responses from the readers!
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> ~ JonasGeek
> 
> P.S. I hope you all enjoyed how the characters worked out. I had to sit down and think quite hard about some of them. Peace out peeps!


End file.
